Staring—like Steady Gaze before it—announces Saito's characteristic mode of attention in its very title. The staring subject is presumably a cat, given the frequency of that animal in his output, its unblinking intense focus on something outside the frame of the image. But staring also describes the artist's own relationship to his subjects—the sustained, undeflected attention through which he extracted formal essentials from architectural and animal subjects that casual observation would miss.
Hebizukai
1932
Color woodblock print; oban
1935
Color woodblock print; oban
1964
Acrylic paint and oil pastel with oiled charcoal and ink over an ink and graphite underdrawing on paper
1964
Color lithograph with relief block and hand coloring; edition 35/36
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Staring was created by Saito Kiyoshi (斎藤清).
Staring depicts animals, abstract, and cats.
