Don Saco Finds Abstraction After 25 Years

As a young man Don Saco was a very successful sculptor. His figurative bronzes were in galleries around the country, and he worked and studied abroad, but Saco’s interests changed and led him to stop creating art for 25 years. It was only in the wake of one of his life’s greatest tragedies that he began to create again.

Saco stopped making art in the 1970s in order to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology. An intelligent man with many talents, it didn’t take long for him to build a flourishing career. Saco had a practice in Manhattan and a position on the faculty of New York University, but he left it all behind and returned to the studio after Sylvia, the love of his life and partner of 50 years, died in 2003.

“I gave up everything,” Saco said, noting that he left NYU, sold his apartment in the city and retreated to the weekend home he and Sylvia had built in Water Mill years before.

He denies that making art was therapy for him, but Saco began sculpting soon after the move, and it definitely helped pass the time during those dark days. “I had something to fall back on,” Saco said. “I found my way.”

The artist had studied anatomy and he created perfectly proportioned figurative work in the 1960s. When he began sculpting again after a 25-year hiatus, Saco’s approach was quite different. “I got out of the figurative and into my abstract phase when I moved out here in 2003,” he said, adding, “I evolved.”

Saco’s very first piece after Sylvia’s death was of three women wailing in grief, but the focus was no longer on making perfect figures. Instead, Saco found a new style using strips of steel and distilled the women down to a single abstract and gestural form. “There’s a freedom that you have with movement and line,” he said, explaining that breaking free of true anatomy was liberating. “I enjoyed that freedom,” Saco said.

The sculptor, now 83, has been perfecting his craft for the last nine years, and people have taken notice. Saco had his first show of this millennium at the ’s Levitas Center for the Arts in 2007 and he has since had numerous shows at venues around the East End.

As a young artist, Saco sought out gallery shows, wealth and recognition, but today he works for no other reason than because he loves to sculpt. He pointed out that it’s not as important to show work when one doesn’t need the money. “Right now, my life is really sculpture and music,” Saco said, noting that for him the two often intersect.

He rediscovered his love of music and began taking piano lessons after moving to Water Mill full time. Saco excelled quickly, so his teacher, Victoria Bond, encouraged him to study music theory and attempt some improvisations. He is now composing music on both the piano and cello.

“I don’t plan to be a composer, I just love doing it,” Saco said, adding later, “I lead a full creative life.”

To see more of Don Saco’s sculpture and to hear his music, visit www.donsaco.com.