Ink and colors on momigami paper, includes The Nativity on red ground, signed in white ink under the image with edition 4/50, Sadao Watanabe 1965, and Noah's Ark on red ground, signed in white under the image with edition 37/100, Sadao Watanabe 1982, and The Three Kings on yellow ground, pencil signed below image Sadao Watanabe, prints identically framed, not examined outside of the frame.

Largest: Sight size 23 x 17.5 in.; Frame dimensions 26 x 20.5 in.

Private Collection, North Carolina

Sadao began his career as an apprentice to a textile dyer and used this training to uniquely color the special momigami paper he used for his stencil prints. After overcoming illness in his youth, he vowed to spread Christianity and succeeded in doing this by producing vivid prints with Biblical themes. He developed his very own style that combines stylistic attributes from modern Western art, Japanese folk art and old Buddhist painting. Sadao is a celebrated print artist and his works have been widely exhibited throughout the world at leading museums and institutions including the Vatican Museum, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

Good estate condition.

$500 - 1,000