Saitô Kiyoshi
Japanese, 1907 – 1997
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Kiyoshi Saitō was a sōsaku-hanga artist in 20th-century Japan. In 1938, he issued his first prints in his now famous "Winter in Aizu" series. Saitō was one of the first Japanese printmaking artists to have won at the São Paulo Biennale in 1951. Saitō's early works depict villages populated with local Japanese with a high degree of realism and three-dimensionality. His more mature works merge modern elements with Japanese tradition. His prints feature architecture and plant life flattened in two-dimensionality.
Saito's work is known for fusing artistic Eastern and Western ideas and styles. He was inspired and influenced by Western artists including Paul Gauguin, Henry Matisse, and Pablo Picasso while also keeping to the long tradition of Japanese wood-block printmaking.
He spent time in Paris, and did a series there. Kiyoshi Saito's woodblock prints titled “Autumn” are considered extremely rare and valuable.
