Saitō Kiyoshi

This article is about the woodblock artist Saitō Kiyoshi. For other people see Kiyoshi Saitō (disambiguation) .

Saitō Kiyoshi ( Japanese 斎 藤 清 ; April 27, 1907 in Bange (today: Aizubange ) - November 14, 1997 ) was a Japanese woodcut artist of the Shōwa period .

life and work

Saitō was born in Bange ( Fukushima Prefecture ), but spent his youth on Hokkaidō . While running a company sign design business in Otaru , he studied oil painting and design with Narita Gyokusen. In 1932 he settled in Tokyo and continued his studies of oil painting at the private Hongo art school. In 1937 he joined Ono Tadashiges " Form-giving Printing Society" ( 造形 版画 協会 , Zōkei hanga kyōkai ).

Saitō began making colored woodcuts as an autodidact. He had his first success with woodcuts of snow-covered villages in his homeland Aizu, which were made from 1938 and which he showed in a paper shop in 1942 under wartime conditions. Immediately after the war he exhibited together with Hiratsuka Un'ichi and Kawanishi Hide in a gallery next to the Imperial Hotel . There he sold his first prints.

In 1950 he became a member of the artist society Kokugakai ( 刻画 会 ). In 1951 he surprised the Japanese art experts when he, together with the Japanese graphic artist Komai Tetsurō (1920–1976), won first prize at the 1951 Biennale of São Paulo with his woodcut, a flower picture . Then he received an invitation to teach woodcut in Ann Arbor , Michigan from 1956 to 1957, which made him known in the United States.

Saitō later renounced depth effects in his works. His prints of women, cats, but also, inspired by a visit to the Katsura villa in 1954, of buildings, are executed in one or two levels. He also let the wood grain work for the image design. His works, which convey Japanese aesthetics in a modern form, have received and continue to attract great attention, especially abroad.

Remarks

1. ↑ Aizu ( 会 津 ) used to be a fiefdom, today the name refers to the western part of Fukushima Prefecture.

literature

• Lawrence Smith: Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989 . British Museum, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .
• Helen Merritt: Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints. The Early Years. University of Honolulu Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8248-1200-X .

Web links

• Yanaizu Municipal Saito Kiyoshi Museum in Yanaizu in Fukushima Prefecture
• Saitō in San Francisco

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Saitō is the family name, Kiyoshi the first name.