As I continue pursuing an interest in woodblock prints picked up early last year, my favorite artist remains Kiyoshi Saito. A few weeks back a print of his came to auction that I hadn’t seen before – his 1957 ‘Buddha Siamese.’ It went for well less than I expected so it’s now mine – fortunate, since I’d decided to fight for it regardless. There are copies at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (that has a surprisingly rich collection of the artist’s works) and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco but I can’t find any substantive info on the piece. The artist seems to have done a similar black and white image a few years later in 1962 but that’s all I have for now. Still, it’s too nice not to share. It’s now in my bedroom and my daughter shouts ‘Hi, Buddha’ each morning as she comes to wake me.
Extracts 