Celebrating a gift of over 100 prints by Saitō Kiyoshi from members Charles and Robyn Citrin, The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, opened Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening in March 2021—the first major survey of the artist’s work since his death. On July 13, 2021, Rhiannon Paget, PhD, the curator of the exhibition, presented a talk on Saitō’s transition from painting to print, key themes in his work, and his masterful approach to composition, color and texture.
Saitō Kiyoshi’s (1907–1997) keen sense of design, superb technique, and engagement with a variety of appealing themes made him one of the best known and most popular Japanese print artists of the twentieth century. Saitō emerged as a seminal figure of the modernist creative print movement, in which artists claimed complete authorship of their work by carving and printing their own designs. He flourished as the movement attracted patrons among members of the occupying forces and, later, Western travelers for business and pleasure. Honors at the 1951 São Paulo Biennial launched him and the creative print movement to prominence at home and abroad. When new diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Japan provided opportunities for Japanese artists to exhibit, teach, and live abroad, Saitō was among the first to do so, thus further broadening his audience.