PITTSBURGH, PA.- Carnegie Museum of Art announces Imprinting in Their Time: Japanese Printmakers, 1912–2022, a survey of the Japanese graphic tradition throughout the 20th century up to the present day, opened June 24, 2023, and will be on view through May 12, 2024. The exhibition spans more than 100 years and examines how the role of a printmaker has transformed through international encounters, new sources of inspiration, and artistic motivation. The exhibition also speaks to how contemporary printmakers continue to adapt a centuries-old artistic tradition for our modern sensibilities and 21st-century technologies. Imprinting in Their Time offers three fresh experiences for visitors, with completely new rotations of work appearing in October 2023 and February 2024, allowing the museum to present some 270 works in total over the run of the show.

Drawn largely from the museum’s extensive collection of Japanese prints, the exhibition highlights a significant yet rarely seen part of its holdings, in addition to special loans from local private collections. One of these highlights includes Yoshida Hiroshi’s Evening in Pittsburgh (Pittsubaagu no yū), 1928, depicting a twinkling downtown skyline along the Allegheny River. Yoshida’s image, contextualizing this global survey on a local scale, will be the only artwork present through all three rotations of the exhibition.

Each rotation consists of approximately 90 works on paper and proceeds thematically, beginning with works from the shin-hanga (new prints) movement, which concentrated on traditional subjects like landscapes, beauties, and actor portraits, in a style influenced by Western art. Moving through the exhibition, works from the sōsaku-hanga (creative prints) movement appear next. During this era, artists moved away from traditional Japanese aesthetics displayed in shin-hanga and drew heavily from the European avant-garde. This era of printmaking emphasized the artist's voice and perspective while incorporating modern techniques and styles. Lastly, contemporary prints from the 1980s to the present day complete the exhibition, featuring an array of Japanese art styles on a global scale.

“Imprinting in Their Time: Japanese Printmakers, 1912–2022 celebrates a nation’s legacy of graphic art and offers a window into critically important but lesser-known moments in the history of printmaking,” says Akemi May, associate curator of works on paper at Carnegie Museum of Art. “Organizing this exhibition presented an
incredible opportunity to dive deep into the museum’s collection and present artworks viewers haven’t seen before. The three distinct rotations offer visitors the chance to experience the show in new ways, perhaps with a different perspective each time."

Expanding the context of the artworks and printmakers in the exhibition, the museum will host regional printmakers for experiential workshops to introduce participants to various printmaking processes within the exhibition. Each workshop is $25; museum admission included.

• Saturday, August 26, 2023, 1–4 p.m. Ashley Cloud, an artist from Western Pennsylvania, will teach participants to design, carve, print, and re-carve a linoleum block to achieve a finished set of prints.

• Saturday, November 4, 2023, 1–4 p.m. New Orleans-based artist Andrea Narno will guide participants through printmaking history, techniques, tools, and materials to create a print from scratch.

• Saturday, March 9, 2024, 1–4 p.m. Pittsburgh-based artist Valerie Lueth of Tugboat Printshop will guide participants in the drawing, carving, and printing of a unique black-and-white woodcut print. This workshop will overview the basic techniques involved in creating an original block print on paper.