When an important date comes around — like a centenary — and an artist has to be commemorated and celebrated, the problem museums and galleries often have is how to get hold of artworks that best represent him.
The Museum of Modern Art Kamakura, for example, has chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kiyoshi Saito, an artist renowned for his hanga (woodblock prints), with an exhibition that is dominated by his impressive but lesser-known monochrome paintings. The reason for such a choice is that what an artist sells and what he keeps are often two different things, and what he keeps often finds its way ultimately into public collections.
This seems to have been the case with the works at this exhibition. According to the exhibition's curator Hiraku Kore-eda, most of the works selected were donated by Saito to the Museum of Modern Art Kamakura and the Mie Prefectural Art Museum.