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Glimpses of Japan: Recent Print Aquisitions

AGGV Puts Newly Acquired Japanese Prints on Display for First Time

Years of hard work bears fruit this week with the opening of an exhibition that features a stunning selection of Japanese prints newly added to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s renowned Asian art collection.

Glimpses of Japan: Recent Print Acquisitions spans more than 300 years of Japanese print making art and offers a fascinating view of Japan and its people from the 18th century through to the end of the 20th century.

“For the past five years we have been on an ambitious acquisition plan to enhance our fine collection of Japanese prints, one of the most comprehensive outside of Japan,” said Barry Till, Curator of Asian Arts at the AGGV. “More than 200 old and new Japanese prints have either been purchased by the Gallery or generously donated to us from private collections. Approximately 60 per cent of these prints were purchased through Internet art auctions which has opened up our ability, with a modest budget, to acquire some wonderful prints to fill in the gaps in our collection.”

Glimpses of Japan will display prints by famous 18th and 19th century ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai, Kunisada, Hiroshige and his students Hiroshige II and III, and Yoshitoshi.

There will be examples of works by print makers of the shin hanga (new print) movement of the 1920s and 30s like Yoshida and his sons, Toshi and Hodaka, Hasui, Kanpo, and Shotei as well as prints by major sosaku hanga (creative prints) movement of the 20th century like Watanabe Sadao, Munakata Shiko, and Yoshitoshi Mori.

Subjects include landscape, historical scenes, individual portraits, genre scenes and impressionistic images.