Collage and pen and ink drawing. 25,5 x 36 cm. Lo. ri. sign. Y. Saito, matted and framed under glass, uninspected out of frame. - Japanese artist, a pioneer of abstract painting in his country. S. pursued unsteady artistic and literary activities until 1964, when he accepted a position as a teacher at the Tama Art School in Tokyo. After 1973, he traveled Europe and continued his artistic activities of the 1930s. After the last traces of the figurative had disappeared from his works in the 1960s, he created works of great formal balance. He was thus ahead of the conservative Japanese art scene and received late recognition. His works were exhibited in the most important museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Mus.: Tokyo, Kyoto, Houston a. others. Lit.: Vollmer, Bénézit.