1
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Print
Ryoan-Ji, Kyoto (A)
Kiyoshi Saito, (1907 - 1992)
Saito, Kiyoshi
Japan
1907 - 1992
Male
Primary
17 15/16 x 23 3/4 in. (45.6 x 60.3 cm)
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overall
sheet
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overall
image
Printer's ink
Printer's ink
1960
1960
1960
1900-2000, Abstract, woodcuts
Print
Like most of his contemporaries, Saito Kiyoshi worked in series, exploring varied aspects of a given theme through medium and composition. This print is part of a series of Ryoan-Ji, a Zen temple built in Kyoto in 1473, which was famous for its dry garden consisting of 15 rocks arranged on a bed of raked, white gravel. Here, Saito has broken the composition into a series of horizontal bands and circles that, without the title and context, seem abstract.
Of particular beauty is his use of the grain of the woodblock to create a variety of textures, all of which visually refer to the materials they represent. The vertical band at the left of the print is surely part of the temple’s wooden building, while the white horizontal band at center depicts the gravel bed on which the rocks are presented.
[Label text, 2014]
lower right , in the imagelower left, in imagelower center below imageverso, on a separate small sheet adhered to proper right side of verso
1961.17
item
Memorial Art Gallery
5/22/2001
61.17SL1
slide
2 x 2
00/00/00
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glossy
full
8 x 10
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negative
full
2 x 3
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61.17DI#1
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/61.17_A1.jpg
61.17DI#2
digital image
11/21/2013
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/61.17_A2.jpg