| WHAT: |
Individually scheduled press tours for “The Print Generation” |
| WHEN: |
Opening tours Nov. 16–23; on view Nov. 16–April 27, 2025 |
| WHERE: |
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
1050 Independence Ave. S.W. |
| WHO: |
Kit Brooks, curator of Asian art, Princeton University; formerly The Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art, National Museum of Asian Art |
Members of the media are invited to view the exhibition “The Print Generation” at the National Museum of Asian Art. In the early decades of the 20th century, a new generation of print artists broke from existing traditions in Japanese printmaking. While the labor of print production was historically divided among different craftspeople, these ambitious artists sought to reinvent the medium by undertaking all aspects of a work’s creation—designing, carving and printing—themselves. This new approach to printmaking became known as the sōsaku hanga (creative print) movement, and the resulting artworks are often rough, raw and unique to each artist’s developing techniques and abilities. Some of the most active practitioners of this new style joined the Ichimokukai, or “First Thursday Society,” organized by Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955), whose members met on the first Thursday of every month from 1937 until Onchi’s death.
Living through imperialist expansion, wartime scarcity and foreign occupation, these artists sought international recognition for works that captured their individualism and self-expression amid a changing world. “The Print Generation” presents a selection of creative prints that challenged the dominant narrative of what it meant to be an artist in 20th-century Japan. Highlights from the Kenneth and Kiyo Hitch Collection and the Gerhard Pulverer Collection illustrate the development and evolution of the sōsaku hanga movement as well as the international reach of these artists and the depth of their relationships to each other.
