
Impressed: Modern Japanese Prints
"Impressed: Modern Japanese Prints" includes Sosaku hanga from Japanese printmakers Tajima Hiroyuki, Iwami Reika, Saito Kiyoshi, and Maki Haku. Sosaku hanga, or "creative prints", were born from an art movement in early-20th-century Japan. Whereas traditional Japanese woodblock prints were collaboratively produced by a team of skilled artisans directed by a publisher, the sosaku hanga movement advocated that a single artist controlled every aspect of the creation of a work. In sosaku hanga, the artist designed, self-carved, and self-printed their creations. The works in the exhibition all share the impression of having highly textured surfaces. The results are remarkably individual and stress the importance of the artist as a sole creator.