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Lot 37 A leader of the Japanese abstract art movement, Saito Yoshishige influenced a generation of artists. Mono-ha [School of Things] evolved in the late 1960s in part from his teachings; a movement that is considered to have changed the course of Japanese art by placing Asia at the centre, rather than on the fringe, of contemporary artistic practice and discussion.
Saito was a professor of Tama Art University, Tokyo from 1964 until 1973 and his teachings included encouraging his students to create art that was modern but not constrained by Western concepts. Several of his students became central figures of the Mono-ha movement, including Sekine Nobuo (see lots 42 and 43), Suga Kishio (see lots 44-48) and Koshimizu Susumu.
Saito remained creatively active in his later life, holding an exhibition at Nizayama Forest Art Museum in Toyama Prefecture in 1998, and producing work right up until his death in 2001.
Saito was a professor of Tama Art University, Tokyo from 1964 until 1973 and his teachings included encouraging his students to create art that was modern but not constrained by Western concepts. Several of his students became central figures of the Mono-ha movement, including Sekine Nobuo (see lots 42 and 43), Suga Kishio (see lots 44-48) and Koshimizu Susumu.
Saito remained creatively active in his later life, holding an exhibition at Nizayama Forest Art Museum in Toyama Prefecture in 1998, and producing work right up until his death in 2001.
Saito Yoshishige (1904-2001)
Blue - Work by Drill
Closed14 October 2015
Price Realised
GBP 37,500
More Information
Specialist note
As a young man in the 1920s, Saito was inspired by Futurist/ Dadaist artists and groups which encouraged “art as totality”, as well as Constructivist ideology which promoted “real materials” and “real space”. These influences lead him to create a series of painted-wood reliefs in 1930s which did not easily win public acceptance at the time as they seemed to be neither painting nor sculpture. However, they set the stage for a career characterised by great freedom of expression and led directly to the painted, gouged and drilled wood panels of the 1960s. These “electric-drill paintings” during 1960-63 reveal Saito’s interest in the process over the end result, stating in 1964 that “To me, what’s necessary is not the result but the cause – making impressions of [drilling] acts and the process”.1
1. Saito Yoshishige, Saito Yoshishige, (Tokyo, 1964), in Alexandra Monroe, Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky, (New York, 1994), p. 308
Attached to the verso of the work is an attestation of authenticity of the work, signed and sealed by Saito's second son Saito Shimon.
1. Saito Yoshishige, Saito Yoshishige, (Tokyo, 1964), in Alexandra Monroe, Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky, (New York, 1994), p. 308
Attached to the verso of the work is an attestation of authenticity of the work, signed and sealed by Saito's second son Saito Shimon.