COMPLETED OFFERING: KIKUO SAITO

Released 17/08/2025 - 9 AM CET

Kikuo Saito (1939–2016) was a Japanese-born American abstract painter and theater artist,

recognized for his vibrant contributions to the Color Field movement.

Born in Tokyo, Saito began painting as a teenager and apprenticed under a traditional Japanese master, gaining exposure to both classical techniques and contemporary movements such as the Gutai Group. He moved to New York City in 1966, where he took painting classes at the Art Students League and immersed himself in the city’s dynamic art scene. During this period, he worked as a studio assistant to influential painters including Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Larry Poons—artists whose influence is evident in his sophisticated use of color and gestural abstraction. He would remain active both as a painter and an occasional stage designer until his death in 2016.

Saito’s work is celebrated for its lyrical interplay of color, form, and calligraphic mark-making. His parallel career in theater had a profound influence on his visual art: he created and directed experimental, wordless theater and dance productions, collaborating with renowned figures such as Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, Jerome Robbins, and Eva Maier, his wife, for several decades. Many of his productions blended Japanese avant-garde traditions with innovative Western performance styles, emphasizing light, costume, music, and movement.

Saito’s deep knowledge of choreography and stage direction directly influenced his approach to painting. He typically worked on the floor, circling and moving across the canvas as if choreographing a performance, resulting in compositions that are rhythmic, gestural, and expressionistic. His approach pushed Color Field painting into new territory, imbuing it with mood, structure, and subtle narrative. His canvases are often peppered with objects, drifting forms, clouds, and Roman letters, adding layers of visual language and emotion.

Saito’s work can be broadly categorized into four main groups: the Color Field Paintings, the Theatre Paintings, the Alphabet Paintings, and the Lyrical Paintings.

Saito’s original take on Color Field, combined with the beauty and depth of his work, has been increasingly recognized by collectors, critics, dealers, and institutions alike.

Saito had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1976 at Deitcher O’Reilly and was included in the prestigious group show The New Generation: A Curator’s Choice at the Andre Emmerich Gallery. Over the following decades, Saito exhibited widely, and his work was acquired by several major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut; and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in North Carolina. His work is also held in numerous corporate and private collections, including the J.P. Morgan Chase, Estée Lauder, Bain & Company, Chevron Oil, and H.J. Heinz.

Saito’s estate is represented exclusively by James Fuentes Gallery in New York and Los Angeles. His legacy is also sustained through KinoSaito, a nonprofit art center in Verplanck, New York, dedicated to interdisciplinary abstract art in the spirit of his practice.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

• 2025

“Kikuo Saito: Reminiscence in Color”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Current: May 21-Dec 21)

“Kikuo Saito: The Wrong Side of the Brush”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Mar 8-May 18)

• 2024

“Kikuo Saito: Color Plays”, James Fuentes Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Oct 26-Dec 7)

“Kikuo Saito: Summer Song”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (May 11-Dec 15)

“Kikuo Saito: Unraveling”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Mar 9-May 5)

“Kikuo Saito: Color Codes”, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY (Mar 8-Apr 20)

• 2023

“Kikuo Saito & Friends: New York City Downtown and Beyond, 1970s & 1980s”, KinoSaito, Verplanck,

NY (May 13- Dec17)

“Kikuo Saito: Pictorial Clay”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Mar 4- May 7)

• 2022

“Kikuo Saito: Hatching Color”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Sep 9- Dec18)

“Kikuo Saito”, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Germany (Sep 9-Nov 5)

“Kikuo Saito: The Alphabet Paintings”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Jun 3-Sep 4)

“Kikuo Saito: Paint with Drawing”, James Barron Art, Kent, CT, (Jun 3-Aug 5)

“Ouray”, Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco, CA (May 5-Jun 25)

“Material Presence: Kikuo Saito”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Mar 4-May 22)

• 2021

“Kikuo Saito: Dancing Across the Surface”, James Barron Art, Kent, CT (Dec 1-Jan 16, 2022)

“Painting as Performance / Performance as Painting”, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Sep 9-Dec19)

“Kikuo Saito: Cloud Paintings”

, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY (Sep 9-Dec19)

“Kikuo Saito”, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY (Mar 3-Apr 3)

• 2019

“Kikuo Saito: To Paint with Drawing”, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, NY (Sep 5-Oct 12)

“Kikuo Saito: The Late Paintings”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Jun 10-Aug 30)

• 2018

“Kikuo Saito: Works on Paper”, Lori Bookstein Projects, New York, NY (Nov 1-Dec22)

“Kikuo Saito”, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA (May 5-May 26)

“Kikuo Saito: Resonant Tension”, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, NY (Apr 26-May 26)

“Kikuo Saito: 40 Years”, Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX (Feb 8-Mar 9)

“Kikuo Saito”, Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (Nov 6, 2017-Jan 9)

Selected Group Exhibitions:

• 2025

“Turn”, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY (May 9-June 7)

“Prelude”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (February 25-March 11)

“Frieze Los Angeles 2025”, James Fuentes Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Feb 20-23)

• 2024

“Art Basel Miami 2024”, James Fuentes Gallery, Miami, FL (Dec 4-8)

“Art Miami 2024”, Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, Miami, FL (Dec 3-8)

“The ADAA Art Show 2024”, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY (Oct 30-Nov 2)

“GEMS”, Leslie Feely Gallery in collaboration with Artnet Auctions, New York, NY (Sep 9- 24)

“Rupture & Connection”, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (Jun 8-Sep 22)

“Art Palm Beach + Contemporary 2024”, Sponder Gallery, Palm Beach, FL (Jan 24-28)

“Drips, Stains & Pours“, Sponder Gallery, Boca Raton, FL (Jan 10-Jan 10, 2025)

• 2023

“A League of Nations”, Arts Student League, New York, NY (Oct 26-Nov 30)

“Seasons”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Sep 26-Nov 5)

“Abstraction: A Selection”, Sponder Gallery, Boca Raton, FL (Jul 23-30)

“Chromatic Dialogue: Tower 49”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (May 5-Mar 31, 2024)

“Show of Shows”, Upsilon Gallery, New York, NY (May 2-Jul 1)

“Fluoresce”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Apr 10-May 31)

• 2022

“Chroma: Choreography of Space & Color”, Upsilon Gallery, New York, NY (Nov 11-Feb 25, 2023)

“Vision of Color”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Nov 29-Dec 30)

“Coalesce”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Oct 10-31)

“Waves of Color” Leslie Feely, New York, NY (Aug 7-Sep 4)

“Intersect Aspen”, James Barron Art, Kent, CT (Jul 31-Aug 4)

• 2021

“Expanse”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Oct 12-Nov 30)

“In Vivid Color”, Leslie Feely Gallery, East Hampton, NY (Aug 12-Sep 6)

“Lines”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Jun 23-Jul 31)

“The Red Show”, James Barron Art, Kent, CT (May 21-Jul 17)

• 2020

“Fall: Selections”, Leslie Feely Gallery, East Hampton, NY (Sep 18-Nov 30)

“Post War Abstraction”, Leslie Feely Gallery, East Hampton, NY (Aug 19-Aug 30)

“Radiant Color: Post-War and Contemporary Art”, Leslie Feely Gallery, New York, NY (Jul 2-Feb 1)

• 2019

“Summer Pop Up: A Selection of Abstract Works on Paper”, Jill Newhouse Feely Gallery,

New York, NY (Jul 24-Aug 14)

“Lyrical Abstraction: Small Scale”, Lori Bookstein Projects, New York, NY (Feb 28-Apr 13)

“A Year in Review”, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, NY (Jan 10-Feb 16)

• 2018

“Works from the 1980’s”, Sponder Gallery, Boca Raton, FL (Nov 8-Nov 29)

“Think Pink II”, Sponder Gallery, Boca Raton, FL (Oct 6-Nov 6)

“Seattle Art Fair 2018”, Sponder Gallery, Seattle, WA (Aug 2-Aug 5)