Today in celebration of Christmas here’s a rather unusual block print of the Holy Family. A multi-color piece that involves both woodcut and screenprint, it’s by Sadao Watanabe (Japan, 1913-1996). He was aiming for “unpretentious honesty of purpose” and used crumpled handmade paper, with screen printing for the blocks of color while the black is printed from a wood block. The style of these people is inspired by Buddhist prints, while obviously the subject is Christian. I can’t say I love this one, but it does make for interesting variety, which is always fun. I do like the flowered hill and trees of the background. If you want to see a variety of Christmas and nativity block prints, you can find many of them linked from this post.
To all who celebrate Christmas, may yours be full of love, light, comfort, and joy. And really, I wish all the same things to you regardless of what holidays you observe!
[Picture: Flight Into Egypt, woodcut and screenprint by Sadao Watanbe, 1971 (Image from The Cleveland Museum of Art).]
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