Toshio Saeki

The late artist and illustrator Toshio Saeki, dubbed the “godfather of Japanese erotica,” built a long and successful career out of surreal, highly sexualized figurative works. To make his electric-hued paintings and silkscreens, the Tokyo-based artist drew on Japanese traditions of erotic and mythological painting, as well as on more contemporary sources such as comic books. After decades of exhibiting mainly within Japan, Saeki found international success late in life: He showed at galleries in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco in the decade before his 2019 death. Saeki saw his erotica as a subconscious expression of a culture in transition. He wasn’t interested in making pleasant work; instead, he preferred to capture strange, vivid fragments of his soul.