Siamese Buddha 1962

Kiyoshi Saito made this print of a Siamese Buddha, and I can just feel him carving into the block of wood. Look at the way the lines create this sense of calm, and then notice the darker lines around the eyes and mouth, giving the face expression. What was Saito thinking as he chipped away at the wood, each cut defining the planes of the Buddha’s face? You know, the way his hands frame the face, it’s like he’s holding his own thoughts, deep in contemplation. The texture is rough, not smooth, which makes me think about the material itself – wood and ink. When I see this, I think of other artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who used woodcuts to express a raw, emotional intensity. Ultimately, artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring each other across time. I am always curious to see how one gesture can say so much, and how art embraces uncertainty, inviting multiple ways of seeing and feeling.