Clay Image
- Date:
- 1953
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; edition 45/50
- Dimensions:
- 41.9 × 58.4 cm
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
The clay image of 1953—a haniwa-adjacent subject that recurs throughout Saito's early and middle work—represents his interest in Japan's pre-Buddhist artistic heritage. These modeled clay figurines, grave goods from the Kofun period (third to seventh centuries CE), offered him a formally compelling antecedent to his own reductive figure style: small bodies with disproportionately large heads, simplified features, an archaic frontality that his woodblock medium naturally echoed. Edition 45 of 50 from a small run.
More Prints by Saito Kiyoshi
More Religious Prints
The Great Buddha, Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu)
Kamakura Daibutsu
1930
Color woodblock print
Hall of the Great Buddha (Nara Daibutsuden)
1950
Color woodblock print
Great Buddha
大仏
Woodblock print
Clearing after a Snowfall at the Kannon Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kannon no yukibare), from the series "Twenty Views of Tokyo (Tokyo nijukkei)"
1926
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clay Image was created by Saito Kiyoshi (斎藤清) in 1953.
Clay Image depicts religious, still life, and abstract.
Clay Image measures 41.9 × 58.4 cm.