The Tower of Babel
- Date:
- 1965
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions:
- 84.6 × 56.8 cm
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
Typical Price
$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.
Description
Dated 1965, the Tower of Babel — the Genesis story of humanity's attempt to build a tower reaching heaven, frustrated by the divine gift of linguistic diversity — is one of Watanabe's most architecturally complex subjects. The tower itself, rising in the bold simplified forms of his katazome style, is surrounded by the diversity of peoples whose new languages made further cooperation impossible. The print captures the moment of human ambition and its transformation into the permanent condition of cultural difference — treated not as punishment but as the origin of the world's rich linguistic plurality.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Tower of Babel was created by Sadao Watanabe (渡辺禎雄) in 1965.
The Tower of Babel uses Stencil Print, on woodblock print, ink and color on paper.
The Tower of Babel depicts architecture.
The Tower of Babel measures 84.6 × 56.8 cm.