Sadao Watanabe (Japanese, 1913-1996), Two Prints

Includes two stencil kappazuri prints, the first of St. Francis feeding the birds on dark indigo blue paper, signed to lower margin in white ink with 36/100 edition, and artist signature Sadao Watanabe with date 1983 (Frame dimensions 25 x 19 3/4 in.)(some scattered white spots), and the second of Adam and Eve, signed to lower margin in black ink with 10/100, and artist signature Sadao Watanabe with date 1980 (Frame dimensions 27 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.)(some light creases in top margin), each presented under glass with full margins in identical silver frames.

Private Collection, Bethesda, Maryland

Sadao Watanabe was born in Tokyo in 1913, was baptized Christian in 1930, and throughout his career, based his designs exclusively on biblical subjects. This said, the Christian stories and figures of his works are interpreted via traditional Japanese techniques. Watanabe took part in the folk-art movement in Japan which began in the 1930s as an attempt to preserve various traditional arts, among them stencil printing, which Watanabe appreciated. Watanabe and Yoshitoshi Mori were the best-known 'sosaku hanga' artists who used the medium called kappazuri (stencil printing), a technique related to 'katazome' (stencil dyeing) which originated in Okinawa (the technique there was called 'bingata').

The bold expressive style and religious iconography are characteristic of artist Sadao Watanabe, a Japanese Christian artist whose biblical prints were delineated in the Japanese mingei (folk art) tradition and whose works have been exhibited in major museums throughout the world, including the Vatican and the Louvre.

Overall very good condition; not examined outside of the frame.