Saitō Yoshishige

Saitō Yoshishige, 1958

Saitō Yoshishige ( Japanese 斎 藤 義 重 , also read as Saitō Gijū; born May 4, 1904 in Tokyo ; died June 13, 2001 ) was a Japanese painter, graphic artist and sculptor of the Shōwa period .

life and work

Saitō Yoshishige was enthusiastic about the Russian futurist Dawid Burljuk in 1920, who was in Japan at the time and was shown at an exhibition. In 1924 he turned to literature and established relationships with the Mavo group of Murayama Tomoyoshi and Sanka. In 1932 he attended the Institute for Western Avant-garde Painting, but the orientation seemed too academic to him. In 1936 he met the artist Yoshihara Jirō . In 1939 he was a co-founder of the “Society of the 9th Room” ( 九 室 会 , Kyūshitsu-kai ), the first Japanese abstract group. The following year he co-founded the “Society for Art and Culture” ( 美術 文化 協会 , Bijutsu bunka kyōkai ), but only took part in the first exhibition. In 1945, at the end of the Pacific War , he lost numerous works.

1954 to 1960 Saitō suffered a long illness, but took part in the “4. Exhibition of international art in Japan ”( 日本 国際 美術展 ) with the work“ Teufel ”and received the art critic award for it. In 1960 he received the Grand Prize for Contemporary Japanese Art. That year he made his first trip through Europe (Italy, Switzerland, France). He also won a prize at the “International Art Exhibition” in the Guggenheim Museum , New York. In 1961 a prize at the 6th São Paulo Biennale followed .

In 1963, Saitō took on a teaching position at the Tama School of Art , which he held until his retirement in 1973. In the time after that he was busy with the creation of new works from the 30s to 50s that had been burned in the war or that had been stolen. In 1985 he received the Asahi Prize . In 1982 he was a co-founder and teacher at the Tokyo Art School ( 東京 芸 術 専 門 学校 , Tōkyō geijutsu semmon gakkō ).

Saitō created various series as abstract art, including the series "Toro-wood" ( ト ロ ・ ウ ッ ド , Toro Uddo ) between 1938 and the 1970s, after 1945 partly as reconstructions of earlier works. These are red wooden bas-reliefs on a white background, with the “toro” referring to the red of a type of tuna meat. There are woodcuts by Saitō, also oil paintings. But he also made sculptures, structures that mostly consist of metal strips.

Remarks

1. ↑ The picture "Toro-wood" [1] as a replica of the lost original from 1938 was shown at the exhibition Japanese painting from 1910 to 1970 in 1999/2000 in Frankfurt and Chemnitz.

literature

• Schaarschmidt-Richter, Irmtraud (Ed.): Saitō Yoshishige . In: The other modern. Japanese painting from 1910 to 1970. Edition Stemmle, 1999. ISBN 3-908161-85-1 .

Web links (images)

• Traces of Blue, 1959
• Plant 2, 1965

Web links

Commons : Saitō Yoshishige  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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