Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Japanese Print Collection
Introduction
The Japanese and Chinese woodblock prints on view in this gallery include both historical and recent examples, demonstrating the continued use of traditional printmaking techniques in 20th-century contemporary practice.
The exhibition reflects ongoing research on Chinese color printing processes by Brian Shure, assistant professor in the Printmaking Department at RISD. As a master printer at the San Francisco print shop Crown Point Press from 1987 to 1994, he coordinated the China Print Project, assisting Western artists who were invited to collaborate with Chinese block carvers and printers. Shure also worked with a similar program in Japan. In 2015, Shure returned to the Rong Bao Zhai Studio in Beijing with RISD printmaking student Laura Post (MFA 2016) to study the douban method of printing (see center case), with the goal of developing a related studio at RISD.
Some of these prints were given to the Museum by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), a daughter of Rhode Island senator Nelson W. Aldrich and the wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. A lifelong supporter of the arts, Mrs. Rockefeller assembled a remarkable collection of Asian woodblock prints. In all, she donated more than 700 Japanese prints to the RISD Museum.
The exhibition was coordinated by Britany Salsbury, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, in collaboration with Brian Shure and with the assistance of Jeffrey Moser, assistant professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University.
Britany Salsbury
Exhibition images
