Saitō Kiyoshi
Japanese, 1907 - 1997
Painter, engraver.
First Thursday Society.
Kiyoshi Saito studied western painting at the Hongo Institute of Painting. After exhibiting paintings at the Kokuga-Kai and Nika-Kai Salons he gradually turned towards wood engraving. In 1943 he met the engraver Onchi Koshiro and became part of his group, the First Thursday Society, as well as the Japanese Engraving Association ( Nihon Hanga Kyokai). He was a member of the Kokuga-Kai (the national painting academy). He spent some time in the USA in 1956. He received several awards in international group exhibitions, notably the São Paulo Biennale in 1951 and in Yugoslavia. He was made citizen of honour in the town of Yanaizu, where a museum is dedicated to him.
Mingling western and traditional styles, Saito painted in oils and in ink ( suiboku ga), and produced wood engravings and collagraphs. He experimented with the textures of papers or different woods, influenced by the susaku hanga movement. He is famous for his stylised landscapes (notably the series on the town of Aizu) in which he experiments with geometric patterns and contrasting colours while conserving a gentle effect in the movement of the contours.
Saito exhibited with Unichi Hiratsuka and Hide Kawanishe in Tokyo at the end of World War II, then in 1948 at the Spring Salon in Tokyo. From 1951 he held a solo exhibition every year in his own country and overseas. In 2002 his work was included in the exhibition Japanese Prints Under the Allied Occupation 1945-1952 at the British Museum in London.
"SAITO, Kiyoshi." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00159358 (accessed May 8, 2012).
Kiyoshi Saito was one of the leading modern Japanese printmakers, who promoted the "self-printmaking" movement. He wanted to individually explore all phases of woodblock printmaking, instead of relying on a collaborated effort among artists, carvers, and printers as practiced traditionally. He worked on a broad spectrum of subjects, ranging from landscape, architecture, and animals, to Buddhist art. The artist was interested in using simplified forms, flat color, and contrasts in patterns textures.
Born in Aizubange, Fukushima prefecture, Saito moved to Tokyo in 1932, where he first studied Western-style painting and then woodblock prints. He visited the United States in 1954 and held exhibitions throughout the world.
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