January 17 - 30, 2003
 
Takeshi Saito
Japan
"Memory"
one-person exhibition
of etchings
  
Born in 1943 in Masuho, Yamanashi. Graduated from Musashino Fine Art College in 1971.
He had won the award of the Highest at the 10th International Print Biennial in Cracow, Poland in 1984.
Regular solo exhibitions in Japan and also in Australia, France, Luxembourg. Numerous participation in group exhibitions all over the World.
Awarded by national and international prizes.
His works are collected in many Japanese public Museums and Galleries, and also in the British Museum, UK; Cracow National Museum of Fine Art, Poland; Norway Museum of Contemporary art  etc.

 80-WOOD BLOCK-2,1980
55.5 x 45 cm
 
  MEMORY-84-I, 1984
45 x 56 cm
 
 
MEMORY-97-VI,1997
60 x 45.5 cm
 
  MEMORY-99-I,1999
56 x 75.5 cm
  		As long as I remember, Takeshi Saito used of the title "Memory", like the
young hero "Le petit Poucet" in the fairy tale leaving some white stones
along the way, to be able to refined out the back way in the forest. I
suppose that Saito is used to plant some traces along his life, but he never
explained to me the reason why he selected this title. Anyway, I may say
that he is very faithful friend, remembering very well each moment of our friendship, according a great value to the human being: respecting the
Japanese tradition and collecting some beautiful pieces of antique.
Neither, he didn't tell me why he prefers these warm colors. Once, during
the opening of his solo exhibition in Goux (France) we looked at the sunset
in the county, and I told him that the sky was a "Saito's work" with the red
lines along the distance. He appreciated it and laughed a lot. I visited his
house, a wonderful and conformable house, with a very warm atmosphere. The same atmosphere I can recognize in his print. In the Saito's works one
could notice the richness of the texture made by a very sophisticated
process of aquatint on 4 or 5 plates, but which seems very light and simple.
He made a lot of figurative artworks, with vegetables, spaces of meditation
in front of a covered heap as a sarcophagus, using frequently a tie in the corner to destroy the symmetry of the composition. Around 1995, he started to
mix carborandum in polymer and to combine it with aquatint and deep
etching. It was the beginning of his abstract research. There are not so many abstract artists in Japan. So, this is a very important characteristic of
his work. On the other hand, Saito's works are not appear to me as abstract
artworks. Indeed, they are full of concrete materials. The corbarandum is
like a part of wet ground engraved with fingers, sheets of lead inlayed
into the paper (which is the other main characteristic)  like part of the original matrix, deep grooves in the plate like in the fields. This works is very sensorial, giving a warm sensuality to eyes and hands - we always wish to touch and caress his prints.
Claude Sinte, Belgium
 
 MEMORY-82-III,1982
44.5 x 56 cm


MEMORY-92-VI,1992
60.5 x 45 cm
 
  MEMORY-86-VI,1986
45 x 60 cm
  
 
 MEMORY-95-IV,1995
74.5 x 50 cm

  Memory of Wall-00-V, 2000  56 x 75.5 cm
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