Exported Visions: Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints
March 17 – June 10, 2007
Tokuriki, Tomikichiro, The Cherry Blossoms of Mt. Shigi in Nara Prefecture (The Eight Views of Japan), n.d. (c. 1950s), Color woodblock print (oban). Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of Brenda F. and Joseph V. Smith, 2004.178b.
When the traditional art of the Japanese color woodblock print was pushed near extinction at the turn of the twentieth century, a few enterprising young artists and publishers revived the old-fashioned art form.
These shin hanga or "new prints" maintained traditional methods and depicted traditional birds, flowers, and landscapes, but this long-established art found a new audience in Western collectors attracted by the powerful and alluring images of Japan. Wildly popular in Europe and the United States, many of these prints were created for sale abroad and even designed with foreign tastes in mind.
This exhibition brought together a selection of fukeiga (landscapes) and kachoga (bird and flower) shin hanga from the Smart Museum's collection, many of which were recent acquisitions that had never been shown before.