MAKOTO SAITO: SCENE [0]
August 2 (Sat) to November 3 (Mon, a holiday) 2008
Artist Profile
SAITO MAKOTOBorn in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1952.
From the 1970s, Saito embarked into the graphic design field, making his debut in 1980. Winning almost immediate recognition both in Japan and overseas, he has since amassed an impressive list of awards from Japan, the USA, Europe, and South America. His graphics works are in the collections of over 30 art museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art alone possesses some 80 of his works.
From the mid-'90s, Saito began to explore the painting genre alongside his design activities, and slowly created the prototype for the paintings he will exhibit this time. In more recent years, he has adopted a new expressive technique for creating paintings. Selecting movie scenes that deeply impressed him as a child, he boldly deconstructs the human image and reconstructs it. Saito's first ever display of his paintings this time, at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, represents an important new step forward for him as a creator.
Selected Exhibitions
| 1986 | “83-man Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition” (National Gallery of Modern Art, India) |
| 1987 | “Contemporary Icon” (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) |
| 1989 | “Today's Art” (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) |
| 1994 | “Japanese Design: A Survey Since 1950” (The Philadelphia Museum of Art; Center Pompidou National Museum for Modern Art, Paris; Suntory Museum Tempozan, Osaka) |
| 1996 | “Makoto Saito, the Viewpoint of Modern Design” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) |
| 1998 | “Makoto Saito: Art of the Poster” (Huntington Gallery at Massachusetts College of Art) |
| 2003 | “The Art of Design: The Architecture and Design Collection” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) “Makoto Saito: The Tokio Graphism” (Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg, Germany) |
| 2005 | “The Art of Design” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) |
Selected Awards
| 1979 | Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art Award, 13th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan |
| 1983 | Highest Award, Tokyo ADC (Japan) |
| 1984 | Gold Prize, 10th International Poster Biennial Exhibit, Warsaw (Poland); Gold Prize, Japan-U.S. Graphic Design Exhibition |
| 1985 | Gold Prize, Bronze Prize, 1st International Poster Triennial in Toyama (Japan) |
| 1987 | Gold Award, 1st New York ADC (USA); Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art Award, 18th Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Japan); '87 MAINICHI DESIGN Award |
| 1988 | Gold Award, 2nd New York ADC (USA); Gold Prize, Bronze Prize, 2nd International Poster Triennial in Toyama (Japan) |
| 1989 | Gold Award, Silver Award, 3rd New York ADC (USA); Grand Prix, 8th Lahti International Poster Biennale (Finland); Grand Prix, 5th International Poster Exhibition of France (France); Highest Award, Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition (USA) |
| 1990 | Silver Prize, 13th International Poster Biennial Exhibit, Warsaw (Poland); Gold Prize, Silver Prize, 19th Brno International Graphic Design Biennial (Czech); Grand Prix, 6th International Poster Exhibition of France (France) |
| 1991 | Member's Prize, Tokyo ADC (Japan); Gold Prize, 3rd International Poster Triennial in Toyama (Japan) |
| 1992 | Gold Prize, 6th New York ADC (USA) |
| 1995 | Grand Prix, Tokyo ADC (Japan) GOOD DESIGN Award successively from '95-'01 (USA) |
| 1996 | Silver Prize, International Poster Biennale in Mexico (Mexico) |
| 1998 | Gold Prize, Special Prize, 77th New York ADC (USA) |
| 2001 | Best of Best Award, Red Dot Award (Germany) （ドイツ） |
| 2002 | Gold Prize, 18th International Poster Biennial Exhibit, Warsaw (Poland) |
Selected Public Collections
| The Museum of Modern Art, New York |
| Poznan Museum (Poland) |
| San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |
| Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich (Switzerland) |
| The Victoria and Albert Museum (England) |
| Colorado State University (U.S.A.) |
| National Museum of Applied Art, Munich |
| The Chicago Athenaeum |
| Wilanow Poster Museum in Warszawa (Poland) |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art |
| Lahti Art Museum (Finland) |
| Hong Kong Heritage Museum |
| Stedelijk Museum (The Netherlands) |
| National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo |
| Brandenburg Museum (Germany) |
| The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama (Japan) |
| Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg (Germany) |
| Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art (Japan) |
| Design Museum (England) |
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