Home > About The Museum > The Collection > SATO Churyo "Hat, Summer"

Update:February 27, 2013

Main content starts here.

SATO Churyo "Hat, Summer"

"Hat, Summer"

”Hat, Summer”SATO Churyo (1912-2011)
1972, 105 x 59 x 42.5cm, Bronze

After his "head hunting" period of the 1950s represented by such works as "Man of Gunma" and "Carpenter of Joban" and his "pediatrician period" of the '60s into the '70s as seen in "Frolic" and "Child of Winter", Sato began to concentrate on sculptures of young women done in a sophisticated style around 1972.
As well as being one of the earliest works of this period, it probably stands, along with "Four Seasons of Doto", as one of Sato's representative works of the l970s and after. Looking downward slightly with a broad-brimmed hat covering her eyes, the figure in this sculpture wears nothing on the upper body and a pair of cut-off jeans and sits with heels raised. This work represents a big departure from the artist's previous simple-hearted style of expression, presenting a slim figure with a decidedly urban sensibility. The slight left-right asymmetry of the body gives the figure a sense of motion and familiarity. Although the style has changed, we still find in this work Sato's unchanged artistic stance of putting forth a straightforward representation of a familiar human form.