Rare Mid Century 1959 Sadao Watanabe (1913- 1966) Limited Edition,number 13 of only 50, Kappa-Ban Print (Dye Stencil Print) on Momigami Paper Crumpled By Hand. "The Well in Samaria". The print is executed primarily in black, white, yellow and green against a bold red background on the crumpled, handmade momigami paper characteristic of the artists work. Signed, numbered, and dated in white ink at the bottom. Sadao Watanabe used traditional Japanese folk-art techniques and a limited palette of natural pigments to depict Christian themes. Gallery Framed in the 60s. Frameless under glass. Measures 23 1/2"x27 1/2"x1/2". Weight 8 pds 6 oz. PROVENANCE: A Private Charleston SC Estate.Sadao Watanabe, born in 1913, grew up in Tokyo, he was a well known Japanese printmaker in the 20th Century. The subject matter of Watanabe’s prints is exclusively the gospel rendered in the mingei (folk art) approach. Influenced by Buddhist figure prints, Watanabe placed biblical subjects in a Japanese context. In The Last Supper (1981) Watanabe depicts the disciples in kimono. On the table are bottles of sake and sushi. Watanabe uses kozo paper (from the mulberry tree) and momigami (kneaded paper). The momigami paper was crumpled by hand, squeezed and wrinkled to give a rough quality to the prints. The katazome method uses traditional organic and mineral pigments in a medium of soybean milk. The protein in the milk bound the colors to the paper’s surface. The use of natural materials is one of the characteristics of mingei (folk art). In 1958, Watanabe received first prize at the Modern Japanese Print Exhibition held in New York City for The Bronze Serpent showing Moses and the people of Israel. Watanabe's Kiku ("Listening" 1960) was featured in the novelist James Michener's The Modern Japanese Print (1962), a book that introduced ten sosaku-hanga artists to the Western audience. The Vatican Museum, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and many other leading museums in the world have all exhibited and own Watanabe’s works.

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