Year: 2022
Medium: acrylic and oil on canvas (two-panel folding screen)
Dimensions: 179.9 x 173.6 cm (70 3/4 x 68 3/8 in.)
Acquired from Tomio Koyama Gallery, 2023
The work is in the form of a folding screen painting with two panels, but there are paintings on both sides of the screen. On one side, it is a closet with dresses, a signature motif of Sato. On the other side, it is a garden scene of roses in bloom with iris, clematis, roses, pansies, violets, kousa dogwood, and many other flowers, which are vividly decorated around the dresses in the closet. Sato’s paintings lovingly depict objects that gorgeously decorate life and living such as clothing, shoes, and carpets. For Sato, flowers are probably depicted here as symbols of colors and splendor that make her excited. The rose garden is so full of vitality as if the scent of the flowers is going to waft in the early summer breeze that passes through the rich and lush greenery at any moment. It makes the viewer hope that there is something more wonderful hidden behind the closet and beyond the rose arches. Thus, the folding screen functions as a division between here and there. In this work, the folding screen is not meant to block the viewer’s gaze but to invite him or her inside. When approaching the work as invited to, the viewer will be surprised by the unexpected layering of colors, with the intensely richer brushstrokes than imagined. The viewer’s expectation will not be disappointed.
