This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Kenzo Okada, born in Yokahoma, Japan in 1902 as the son of a wealthy
industrialist enjoyed a privileged life in Japan. Okada attended
Tokyo Fine Arts University where he painted in traditional realist
style. Despite his parent's apprehension towards his career in
art, determination brought Okada to Paris in 1924, where he studied
with fellow Japanese expatriate, Tsuguji Fujita. Then in 1927, he
returned to Japan to host his first one-man show, as a realist painter,
at the Michido Gallery in Tokyo. He also painted murals for the
Hilton Hotel in Tokyo.
He emigrated to the United States and
arrived in New York in 1950, during the height of the Abstract
Expressionist movement. His work underwent complete
transformation. He became an abstract painter in the American
fashion, but with an inexpressible Oriental nature, "with textures
reminiscent of Japanese fabric and the subtle, exquisite coloration of
traditional Japanese painting."
Later his work incorporated the
knowledge of Zen, piercing with form and color and often incorporating
figurative elements inspired by the ancient Japanese Noh drama. Okada's
work uses characteristics of Yugenism (from the Japanese word yugen)
referring to Japanese aesthetic values that emphasize
suggestiveness. Using Western style canvases to express such
themes, Okada would paint in white, hinting at the "void" often used in
Japanese traditional paintings to show depth
Okada enjoyed
phenomenal success throughout his lifetime. He was awarded prizes
from some of the most prestigious American art institutions, and his
works were exhibited at leading galleries and museums. He became
a United States citizen in 1960, and died in 1982. His work has
been credited with forming a bridge between the abstract qualities
found in Eastern and Western art.
Sources include:
www.usembassy.state.gov
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Kenzo
Okada was born in Yokohama, Japan on September 28, 1902, the son of a
wealthy industrialist. He enjoyed a privileged life in Japan. He
attended Tokyo Fine Arts University where he painted in traditional
realist style. Despite his parents' apprehension toward his career in
art, he went to Paris in 1924 and studied with fellow Japanese
expatriate, Tsuguji Fugita. In 1927 he returned to Japan.
Kenzo
Okada came to the United States in 1950; before that move his forms
were derived from landscapes and figures. But for a man who ulimately
decided that he wanted to paint the interior of his own mind, the
object merely inhibited the necessary flight of fancy. And so he turned
to abstraction, with the flavor of Japan still in it. When he and his
wife, Kimi, were not in their Greenwich Village apartment, they were
apt to be in an old frame house near Albany, New York. He worked on as
many as five canvases at a time, wandering from one to another in bare
feet. He had no advanced knowledge of how his canvas should come out,
and thus his composition could grow naturally.
Okada's work
has been credited with forming a bridge between the abstract qualities
found in Eastern and Western art. He became a United States citizen in
1960. He died on July 25, 1982 in Tokyo.
Written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.
Sources include:
Time Magazine, January 25, 1963.
From the internet, AskART.com and Artnet.com
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Kenzo Okada is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Modernism
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