Chinese Woodblock Prints | Mingei International Museum

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Our galleries are partially closed while we install our next fall show -- Inside the Design Center! In the meantime, enjoy discounted admission prices. Visit us to see Layered Narratives and Fashioning an Icon (closes on Sept 7th).

On View

Sep 16, 2007 - Jun 15, 2008

Curated By

James Greaves

The Chinese woodblock prints that were on display were likely from a nineteenth century edition of Treatise on Calligraphy and Painting of the Ten Bamboo Studio. Although this work, originally printed in the seventeenth century, was intended as a manual of painting, it and other editions are a testament to the precision and skill of Chinese woodcutters and painters. The prints of the Ten Bamboo studio were noteworthy for the technique of printing using multiple blocks; this resulted in prints without outlines and with graded tones of colors. Among the designs featured in these meticulously rendered prints are blossoms, branches and birds and, most notably, gongshi.

Professor Xiaobing Tang of the University of Southern California presented a lecture entitled “Chinese Woodblock Prints: The Story of an Ancient Art Form” on Saturday, October 27, 2007. Artist craftsman Igor Koutsenko presented a demonstration, The Craft of Woodblock Printing, on Sunday, March 16, 2008.