Yoshishige Saitō (斎藤義重, Saitō Yoshishige, also Saitō Gijū or Saito Ghiju, May 4, 1904, in Hirosaki – June 13, 2001, in Yokohama) was a Japanese visual artist and art educator.
Saitō was a seminal figure in Japanese art of the 20th century and a crucial link between the prewar avant-garde and postwar abstract art in Japan. From early on, he was exposed to Post-Impressionism and the avant-garde movements, including Russian constructivism and European Dada, as well as Western literature and Marxism. In the 1930s, he became active in the avant-garde art circles, while pursuing abstraction in paintings and wood reliefs, most notably the relief series of Kara kara and Toro Wood. All of his prewar works and related materials were lost to an air-raid fire in 1945, some of them were reconstructed in the 1970s.
In the immediate postwar years, Saitō's return to art was slow, but by 1957, he established himself again in the art world as a prominent abstract artist. His painting imbued with a great sense of formalism was first followed by his "drill paintings" during the Informel period and then by the return to wood reliefs, which would later lead to large-scale "spatial constructions" made of painted plywood in the 1980s. In these works in wood, he critically engaged with the issues of painting, while exploring the potential of mundane plywood to construct spaces.
As a professor at the Tama Art University and the Tokyo School of Art, Saitō inspired a great number of art students, especially the future artists of the Mono-ha movement.
Biography
Early life and career Born in Hirosaki in 1904 as the son of an army officer, Saitō grew up in a wealthy environment in Tokyo.Matsunaga Shintarō, "年譜" (Chronology), 斉藤義重展 / The Retrospective Exhibition of Saito Yoshishige, exh. cat., Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka, Chiba City Museum of Art, Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, n.p.: The Committee for "The Retrospective Exhibition of Saito Yoshishige", 2003, 236–257, 237.Wakamatsu Motoi, "いくつかの断片: 斎藤義重の怒り", 斎藤義重展 / The Retrospective Exhibition of Saito Yoshishige, exh. cat., Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka, Chiba City Museum of Art, Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, n.p.: The Committee for "The Retrospective Exhibition of Saito Yoshishige", 2003, 96–102, 98. In his childhood, he encountered European architecture and painting in photographs and postcards owned by his father.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 237. Saitō attended the Nihon Chūgakkō (Japan Middle School) and joined the school's art club; in his youth painted landscapes and figure paintings in the style of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh.Kageyama Kōichi, 斎藤義重《作品7》: 二重構造性が示す実存「千葉成夫」, Artscape, March 15, 2014, https://artscape.jp/study/art-achive/10097493_1983.html . Last retrieved 2021-08-30. He was an avid reader of European and Russian literature, including works by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, and Romain Rolland.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 237.
Saitō's engagement with avant-garde art began in the early1920s. He visited the exhibition of Russian Futurist paintings by David Burliuk and Victor Palmov in Tokyo in 1920, attended theater productions by Tomoyoshi Murayama at the Tsukiji Shōgekijō (Tsukiji Small Theater),"斎藤義重 日本美術年鑑所載物故者記事" (Year book of Japanese art, obituaries: Saitō Yoshishige), Tokyo Research Institute for Cultural Properties, https://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/bukko/28221.html . Last retrieved 2021-08-30. and learned about European avant-garde art via catalogues and magazines.Kageyama, "斎藤義重《作品7》". During this time, he developed a critical stance towards conventional painting for its illusionist and expressive values. He also became more interested in literature and participated in a study group on Marxism.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 238. Around 1928, Saitō began to create three-dimensional works, fueled by a closer study of Russian constructivism and European Dada artists such as Jean Arp, Francis Picabia, and Kurt Schwitters.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 238.
In 1933, Saitō joined the Avangyarudo Yōga Kenkyūjo (Avant-garde oil painting institute), which had been founded by avant-garde artists such as Seiji Tōgō and Harue Koga and included emerging artists such as Yuki Katsura. Disappointed by its academicism, he quit in 1935.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 238."斎藤義重 日本美術年鑑所載物故者記事". Around this time, Saitō encountered Surrealist writer and critic Shūzō Takiguchi and poet/visual artist Katsue Kitazono, with whom Saitō developed long-lasting friendships. A participant in exhibitions of the Nika Art Association (commonly known as Nika) beginning in 1936, Saitō joined the Kyūshitsukai (Room Nine Society), an avant-garde section within Nika initiated by avant-garde members art such as Takeo Yamaguchi, Jirō Yoshihara, Yuki Katsura, and Teiji Takai, in 1938. He left in 1939 to join the newly founded Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai (Art and Culture Association) led by Surrealist painter Ichirō Fukuzawa which brought together around 40 avant-garde artists such as Nobuya Abe, Aimitsu, Saburō Asō, Iwami Furusawa, Noburu Kitawaki, and Tadashi Sugimata."斎藤義重 日本美術年鑑所載物故者記事"Adachi Gen, "美術文化協会 (Bijutsu Bunka Kyoukai)", Artscape, Artwords, https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E7%BE%8E%E8%A1%93%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%8D%94%E4%BC%9A Last retrieved 2021-08-30. In the context of the intensifying oppression of liberal, particularly Surrealist, artists by the militarist Japanese state, Saitō's home was searched by the police in 1942.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 239. During the war years, to avoid being drafted, Saitō was registered and worked at a factory producing soap for the military.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 239. Shortly before the end of World War II, Saitō's works, notebooks, and other documents were lost in a fire caused by an air raid.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 240.
Post-World War II life and career In 1946, Saitō shortly took up a job as an editor of the magazine Katei Bunka (Home culture) and invited photographer Kiyoji Ōtsuji to work for the magazine.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 240. He quit the job in 1947 and began offering painting classes.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 240. In 1947, he participated in the founding of the Nihon Avangyarudo Bijutsuka Kurabu (Japan Avant-Garde Artists Club) initiated by Tarō Okamoto. In 1953, Saitō gave up his membership in the Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai and remained without affiliation. Experiencing financial and family hardships as well as health problems, Saitō retreated to Urayasu in 1954, where he stayed until his move back to Tokyo in 1960.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 240.Wakamatsu, "いくつかの断片", 96.
Saitō's works were shown in group exhibitions from the early 1950s onwards, including the Nichibei Kōkan Bijtusu 30-nin-ten (US-Japanese exchange exhibition of works by 30 artists) in 1951, the Nihon Kokusai Bijutsuten/International Art Exhibitions, Japan since 1952, the Chūshō and gensō (Abstraction and fantasy) exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in 1953, and the Gendai Nihon Bijutsuten/Contemporary Japanese Paintings Exhibition in 1956.
They year 1957 marked Saitō's breakthrough in the Japanese art world, with his works being included in and awarded prizes at major group exhibitions. In 1958, Saitō's first solo exhibition took place at the Tokyo Gallery at the recommendation of Takiguchi, an advisor to the gallery."斎藤義重 日本美術年鑑所載物故者記事". The show proved successful for the artist, as all exhibited works were sold and the show cemented Saitō's lifelong close collaboration with the gallery. Subsequently, Saitō's works continued to be shown in numerous major group exhibitions of Japanese contemporary art and painting in Japan and abroad, such as New Japanese Painting and Sculpture in the US in 1965, as well as international events such as the 41st Pittsburgh Bicentennial International Exhibition in 1958, the 5th São Paulo Biennale in 1959, the Venice Biennale and the Guggenheim International Award in 1960.
After his return from his first trip to Europe in 1960 on the occasion of the Venice Biennale, Saitō moved back to Tokyo. Since then Saitō frequently travelled Europe, Egypt, and the US. During his stay in the US in 1965/66, Saitō met Jasper Johns, Yayoi Kusama, Shūsaku Arakawa, On Kawara, and attended events by John Cage and Fluxus artists.
Teaching In 1964 Saitō became a professor at the Tama Art University in Tokyo. Saitō's classes were known for the unconventional teaching methods he used to foster his students' artistic autonomy (e.g. non-hierarchic group discussions and one-on-one communication) and to dismantle academic concepts.Wakamatsu, "いくつかの断片", 98. He eagerly introduced and discussed the newest international artistic developments in his classes, such as Earthwork.Wakamatsu, "いくつかの断片", 98.Yamamoto Masami, "吉田克朗の1968年–1972年: 立体造形 (オブジェ) の時代" (Yoshida Katsuro's Three-dimensional Object Period 1968–1972), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo annual report 13, (2011), 72–81, 71. Among his students were Shingo Honda, Sugao Kishi, Susumu Koshimizu, Katsuhiko Narita, Nobuo Sekine, and Katsurō Yoshida, who later became members of Mono-ha, as well as other members of Bijutsuka Kyōtō Kaigi (Artists Joint-Struggle Council, commonly known as Bikyōtō).Tanaka Yukiko, "美共闘 Bikyoto", Artscape, Artwords, https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E7%BE%8E%E5%85%B1%E9%97%98. Last retrieved 2021-08-30. During the student protests in the late 1960s, Saitō sided with the students and opposed the university's council.Ōizumi Kazufumi, コンピュータ・アートの創生: CTGの軌跡と思想 1966–1969 (The creation of computer art: The traces and ideas of CTG, 1966–1969), Tokyo: NTT Shuppan, 2015, ##. He stopped giving lectures in 1970, and officially quit his position in 1973.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 246.
In 1982, the Tokyo School of Art (TSA, 東京芸術専門学校) was founded following Saitō's pedagogical principles. One of them was "not to teach", by which Saitō intended to foster independence and to spur his students to work out their individual approaches without any help.Wakamatsu, "いくつかの断片", 98. First engaged as a lecturer, he became the school's director in 1985. The school closed in 2000.Kageyama.
Saitō died on June 13, 2001, in Yokohama, at the age of 97.
Work
Early work, 1930s During the 1930s Saitō transitioned from a geometric semi-figurative painting style towards a completely abstract visual language, which consisted in spatial arrangements of geometric forms that echoed approaches by European abstract artists such as Jean Arp, Hans Erni, Naum Gabo, Jean Hélion, Arthur Jackson, Fernand Léger, or Antoine Pevsner. In 1930, Saitō applied for the 18th Nika Exhibition with a relief-like work, but unable to decide whether it should enter the sections of painting or sculpture, he withdrew.Matsunaga, "年譜" (Chronology), 238. His mixed-media collages Kara kara (1936), which were reconstructed in the 1970s, combined elements of Surrealist object, geometric abstract painting and constructivism. In 1938, Saitō began to apply stripe- and oval-shaped pieces of plywood, which were painted in bright monochrome colors, on white painted framed boards. These works, later titled Toro-uddo (Toro-wood), engaged with Russian constructivism and European abstract art as well as ink rubbings from the Northern Wei dynasty,Wakamatsu, "いくつかの断片", 98. and challenged characteristics of traditional painting such as expression, flatness, and illusion. Saitō's early works were lost in the fires caused by the air raids during World War II, but some of them were reconstructed by the artist in the mid-1960s.
"Era of painting", 1940s–1960