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Watanabe Sadao

Color stencil print of Madonna holding baby Jesus.
Watanabe Sadao (Japanese, 1913–1996), A Modern Madonna (detail), 1984, color stencil print on momigami paper; katazome-hanga, Gift of Anne H. H. and Kenneth B. Pyle. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2022.8.34. © Watanabe Tatsuo.
Sep 19, 2026 - Sep 26, 2027
Portland Art Museum
1219 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR
Included with general admission
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General accessibility

This exhibition introduces the artistry of Watanabe Sadao (1913–1996), who developed a unique stencil printing process based on traditional Japanese textile dyeing techniques. The artist’s compositions of Biblical subjects are highly legible and direct, channeling the iconographic clarity of early medieval Christian art. Tracing Watanabe’s distinctive methods and expressive power over several decades, the exhibition explores the artist’s alignment with the twentieth-century mingei (folk art) movement, which emphasized the beauty of handmade, everyday objects created from natural materials.

Stencil of two figures entwined in leaves.
Watanabe Sadao (Japanese, 1913–1996), Adam and Eve, 1967, stencil, Gift of Mr. Tatsuo Watanabe. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2024.35.5. © Watanabe Tatsuo.

In recent years, important gifts to the collection have made the Museum the largest public collection of Watanabe Sadao’s work in the world. Recent research has also revealed that the Portland Art Museum hosted the artist’s first solo exhibition at a major American art museum, which took place in 1969. This presentation celebrates both of these legacies over the course of a yearlong exhibition that includes many of the artist’s best print designs as well as his rare original stencils, beautiful enough to be works of art in themselves. 

Please note that works will rotate halfway through the exhibition’s run.