The Bronze Serpent　青銅の蛇

The Bronze Serpent

This print is a landmark is Watanabe's oeuvre in two ways. The print marks Watanabe's transition from black and white prints to colored prints and the print contributed to Watanabe's international recognition as a print artist because it was awarded at the 1958 Modern Japanese Print Exhibition in New York.

The way from black and white prints to colored prints

Since the 1940s Watanabe created works of art, stencilling the stories of the Bible. His prints of the 1940s and 1950s were made with black pigments on white washi.

In the late 1950s Watanabe started to use color in his prints. He submitted a work with colored parts to the 1958 Mingei Exhibition and his teacher Serizawa praised him for it: “and this time his successful use of color has a great effect.”[1] This comment suggests (‘this time’) Watanabe had used color in his works before. Nowadays colored prints made earlier than 1958 are unknown. Serizawa challenged Watanabe further to give more attention to his technique for applying color.[2] About the use of color, Watanabe wrote: "At first I used mainly black and white pigments, but I was deeply moved by the encouragement of my teachers and colleagues. However, try as I might, I was not able to use other colors successfully until suddenly one day yellow and red pigments took the Japanese paper. I felt as though a new door had opened." [3]

The Bronze Serpent is the first documented work in color, made with black and white pigments on washi with brushed on colors. Watanabe made several "experimental" colored versions with the stencil of The Bronze Serpent, as is shown in the SadaoHanga Catalogue.

The Bronze Serpent and the New York first prize

This Bronze Serpent won the first prize at the 1958 Modern Japanese Print Exhibition in New York City. Stuart Preston wrote about this exhibition in The New York Times of May 13, 1958: “Prizes were awarded in the following order: first, to Sadao Watanabe’s “Brazen Serpent,” a rigidly frontal composition of six figures cunningly related.”

Which version of the print won the 1958 prize? A colored one or the black and white version? The answer to that question is found in the 1958 art archives. The black and white print won the first prize! The magazine Arts of may 1958 published a review of the 1958 show, written by Hugo Munsterberg. Munsterberg wrote: “Sadao Watanabe, also a member of the Mingei group, won first prize with his Brazen Serpent, a very strong print with a simple all-over design using flat areas of black ink against the white of the paper.”[4]

The way of the colored print

Before this print Watanabe expressed his art in black and white but after this print, color enriched his designs more and more. It’s likely that the colored versions of The Bronze Serpent were made in the aftermath of the success of this print in the New York exhibition and because Watanabe respected the opinion of his teacher Serizawa and devoted more study to the technique for applying color. And with great succes! Nowadays Watanabe is especially famous for the use of warm colors in his prints.

[1] Kenji Kanda, A Dream in Stencil Prints, p. 28, in: All thy marvelous works, Tokyo, 2013, p. 22

[2] Ibidem, p. 22

[3] Watanabe Sadao in his Words from the artist, in: Masao Takenaka, Biblical Prints by Sadao Watanabe, Shinkyo Shuppansha, Tokyo, 1986, p. 7

[4] Arts, Vol. 32, nr. 8, may 1958, p. 55