Hiroshi Sato and Diebenkorn

Hiroshi Sato, born in 1987 in Gamagori, Japan, is a contemporary painter known for his modern realist works that often depict quiet, introspective scenes with a strong emphasis on geometry and light. From the age of three to fourteen, Sato lived in Tanzania, East Africa, and he currently resides in San Francisco. His ‘Water Series’ of paintings is currently on display at the Harris/Harvey Gallery in Seattle, through December 2nd. While I don’t know Sato’s exact inspirations, I’ve speculated on what he might be responding to, both consciously and unconsciously, in what I call an ‘inspiration soup.’ Over the next few days, I’ll share my thoughts and examples of artist comparisons, one at a time. This is the first in a series of V. Notes. Please feel free to share, and stay tuned for more!

Hiroshi Sato – The Water Series

---

Sato and Diebenkorn:

Richard Diebenkorn was known for his distinctive use of geometry and color, which varied according to his location at the time. His paintings convey a strong sense of place through geometric abstraction, an aspect that resonates with Hiroshi Sato’s style. The color palette, simplification through geometry, and the interplay of light in Sato’s works could be seen as reminiscent of Diebenkorn’s approach.

---

The seemingly trivial detail of scissors on a square of red in a still life might not immediately strike you as significant, but trust me, it is. Diebenkorn’s art encourages viewers to explore beyond the surface and ponder layers of meaning, symbolism, and emotion conveyed with his unique blend of abstract and representational objects. Everyday things like scissors and a lemon in an abstract setting could be a way of connecting the mundane and the abstract, the real and the imagined. These elements invite viewers to find meaning and connection within an unconventional composition.

I don’t know if Hiroshi Sato intentionally referenced this specific element from a Diebenkorn painting, a closer look reveals some similarities. Soften your gaze and you’ll notice that the angle of the scissors and Sato’s red X are identical. In Diebenkorn’s work, the lemon has a direct interaction with the edge of red, whereas in Sato’s, the bottle top corresponds precisely to this line. Furthermore, both paintings feature shadows that extend toward the viewer, and both paintings have a stripe of bright color at the forward edge of the table. This subtle stripe of color gives a sense of foreground/background to the otherwise flat surface.

---

I lined up the rectangle in Sato’s painting with the top of Diebenkorn’s edge, and added black and grey rectangles over Diebenkorn’s to be reminiscent of the open geometric space visible in his Ocean Park series (below).

For the mashup of Diebenkorn compositions above, I’m hoping this will be a not-too manipulated way of showing four opposing elements that Diebenkorn experimented with: diagonals vs rectangles, active areas vs space. Please forgive me for this Franken-Diebenkorn, but it was fun.

Notice the rectangles and diagonals, and how some are from a mundane figure, and some are from pure abstraction (Diebenkorn’s trademark). Even though the arms and legs are different, both Sato and Diebenkorn are looking at the geometry of the figure, and using similar as heck diagonals to get from one side of the composition to the other.

These parallels are amazing to me. I mean, literal parallels. To me, paintings always seem so “off the cuff” or “that’s what was there” but then once I start breaking them down, the elements of art (line, shape, color, value, form, space, texture) become more clear, illuminating how much refinement the artist worked into the image, and my appreciation grows. I have so much fun looking at paintings.

This is the first of a few V. Notes, sending in a sequence.

Next up: Hiroshi Sato and Edward Hopper.

---

SHOW INFO

Showing at Harris/Harvey Gallery now through December 2, 2023
The Water Series is a new body work by California-based artist Hiroshi Sato, extending the artist’s earlier series entitled Transvaluation. Sato portrays scenes of isolation and estrangement in the San Francisco of today, illustrative of the social consciousness of post-pandemic alienation. The exhibition also includes Sato’s contemporary still life scenes, featuring bottles and objects curiously arranged on various surfaces. Sato’s work has now moved into a different format revolving around water based medium and drawing on raw canvas, a shift from his earlier oil paintings.

Click here to view other available works by Hiroshi Sato