On November 19, 2020, Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu, the Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art and Interim Head of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum, gave this Webinar lecture on Japan’s women printmakers.
The 1950s and ’60s in Japan saw printmaking thrive as an art form, propelled by a foreign audience’s enthusiasm for Sōsaku Hanga (Creative Prints). But few women were featured in exhibitions, publications or the art societies that provided the critical infrastructure for professionals. Within this context emerged Japan’s first printmaking society for women artists, the Joryū Hanga Kyōkai—the Women’s Print Association.
This exhibition is the first to introduce the work of this society as a collective. It focuses on the work of five of the nine original members: Iwami Reika (1927–2020), Kobayashi Donge (b. 1926), Minami Keiko (1911–2004), Uchima Toshiko (1918–2000) and Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), along with several members who joined in later years. This talk explores the vibrant work of these artists and their pioneering contributions to modern printmaking history, and considers why this important collective has never received the critical attention it deserves. For more details, please visit the exhibition webpage: Portland Art Museum Joryū Hanga Kyōkai (with further links to artworks in the show from the permanent collection—about 50 percent of the exhibition).