Flight Into Egypt Japan, 20th century | Cleveland Museum of Art

Flight Into Egypt

1971

Sadao Watanabe

(Japanese, 1913–1996)

Japan, 20th century

woodcut and screenprint

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shearer for the sixtieth anniversary of The Print Club of Cleveland 1979.101

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Watanabe's work is associated with the Japanese Folk Art movement that developed in the 1920s and 1930s to encourage the preservation and appreciation of Japan's craft and folklore traditions, which were admired for their unpretentious honesty of purpose. Watanabe used crumpled, handmade paper (commonly used for book covers and endpapers) for his childlike images, which emphasizes their handcrafted quality and adds texture to the broad, flat areas of stenciled color. He was a converted Christian, and although many of his subjects are taken from the Old and New Testaments, his technique is entirely Japanese and his figural style is very close to the popular Buddhist prints of earlier periods.