Tetsuro Sawada (Japanese, 1933-1998), Night Island

Screenprint in colors on paper, 1981, pencil signed, titled, and numbered 13/35 to lower margin, matted and framed below glass.

Image size 16 1/2 x 23 in.; Frame dimensions 26 3/4 x 33 1/4 in.

Sawada Tetsuro was born in Hokkaido and lived in Tokyo. He had a seemingly endless fascination with vast skies and bands of layered clouds, which he depicted as lithographs and serigraphs with subtle gradations of colors. He began his career in 1958 with a degree from Musashino University of Fine Arts majoring in Western painting. He spent the late 1960s traveling in North and South America, as well as studying in France and Spain, these travels offering him additional views of the world, and these foreign landscapes and skies were reflected in his artworks. During the next decade, his lithographs and serigraphs gained in popularity among collectors, and in 1980 he won a prize at the Norway International Print Biennale. Sawada’s works reflect a contemporary style all his own, with striking juxtapositions of matte and lustrous colors presented with clean precision and a quiet atmosphere.

A saturated impression on a clean sheet; not examined outside the frame; small loss to glass at lower right.