斎藤義重 SAITO Yoshishige 1904–2001

1904(明治37)年東京都に生まれる。青年期、村山知義らの美術運動、ロシア構成主義、ダダイスムなどから刺激を受け前衛的な芸術活動を志す。1933(昭和8)年から1935(昭和10)年にかけて東郷青児、阿部金剛らが主宰するアヴァンギャルド洋画研究所に在籍。1936(昭和11)年第23回二科展に初入選する。1938(昭和13)年、山本敬輔らと絶対象派協会を、二科会の前衛美術家たちと九室会を結成し、日本の抽象美術の開拓者的役割を果たす。1960年代初頭からドリルを使って画面を彫り込む作品を発表し、1960(昭和35)年グッゲンハイム国際美術賞展で最優秀賞、1961(昭和36)年サンパウロ・ビエンナーレで国際絵画賞を受賞するなど、国際的な評価を得る。1964(昭和39)年多摩美術大学教授となり、後に「もの派」と呼ばれる美術家たちを育てた。2001(平成13)年東京都で亡くなる。
＜「あの時みんな熱かった！アンフォルメルと日本の美術」展（2016年、京都国立近代美術館）図録より引用＞

Yoshishige Saitō (斎藤義重, Saitō Yoshishige, also Saitō Gijū or Saito Ghiju, May 4, 1904, in Hirosaki – June 13, 2001, in Yokohama) was a Japanese visual artist and art educator.
Saitō was a seminal figure in Japanese art of the 20th century and a crucial link between the prewar avant-garde and postwar abstract art in Japan. From early on, he was exposed to Post-Impressionism and the avant-garde movements, including Russian constructivism and European Dada, as well as Western literature and Marxism. In the 1930s, he became active in the avant-garde art circles, while pursuing abstraction in paintings and wood reliefs, most notably the relief series of Kara kara and Toro Wood. All of his prewar works and related materials were lost to an air-raid fire in 1945, some of them were reconstructed in the 1970s.
In the immediate postwar years, Saitō’s return to art was slow, but by 1957, he established himself again in the art world as a prominent abstract artist. His painting imbued with a great sense of formalism was first followed by his “drill paintings” during the Informel period and then by the return to wood reliefs, which would later lead to large-scale “spatial constructions” made of painted plywood in the 1980s. In these works in wood, he critically engaged with the issues of painting, while exploring the potential of mundane plywood to construct spaces.
As a professor at the Tama Art University and the Tokyo School of Art, Saitō inspired a great number of art students, especially the future artists of the Mono-ha movement.
< from Wikipedia>