Meditating on Sadao Watanabes prints
In the 1960s Sadao Watanabe commented his print Listening (SadaoHanga Catalogue 1960-6) with the following words: “I have always aspired to portray stories and episodes from the Bible. In the disturbing world, I would like to be able to heed the voice of heaven”.
It is told that mr. Watanabe read the biblical words over and over again, considered their meaning and prayed before he gave the story an image in his prints. Thus the message of the Bible worked through his hands and eyes, his cutting the stencil and painting the prints. In this way we can hear through our eyes the voice of Heaven in his works of art.
The pages of SadaoHanga Meditation offer the opportunity to read the text of the Bible that is reflected in the print, and meditate on Word and Image to heed the voice of Heaven in this disturbing e-world.
As Sadao Watanabe addressed his prints primarily to the Japanese people, the biblical text is also given in Japanese.