Descent from the Cross
- Date:
- 1973
- Medium:
- Hand-colored stencil print on crumpled paper; edition 33/70
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
$500–$5,000. Common Biblical prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Watanabe's warm, folk-art Biblical prints have a devoted collector base. Larger formats and earlier works command more.
Dated 1973, the Descent from the Cross — executed on crumpled paper that gives the print's surface a distinctive textural quality — depicts the moment when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus remove the body of Christ from the cross. Watanabe's use of crumpled paper as a printing surface creates an organic, irregular ground that itself becomes expressive: the wrinkled surface suggesting the weight of grief, the tactility of the moment, the imperfection of human sorrow. The limited edition (33/70) marks this as a carefully produced original print.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Descent from the Cross was created by Sadao Watanabe (渡辺禎雄) in 1973.
Descent from the Cross uses Stencil Print, on hand-colored stencil print on crumpled paper; edition 33/70.
