Review: When Japan became modern: Meiji-era art at Smart Museum chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Exhibition explores the creative expression seen in Meiji-era prints
Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), Night Patrol in the Snow near Niu-chuang, 1894, woodblock printed triptych 14 1/8 by 27 5/8 in., 35.8 by 70.3 cm.
NEW YORK, NY
.-Scholten Japanese Art is presenting, On The Vanguard: Meiji Period Woodblock Prints, a two-part exhibition, with thirty prints in each section, exploring the creative expression seen in Meiji-era prints and the acceptance of new cultural ideas in the Japanese populace at large during this dynamic period in the late 19th and early 20th century. Delineated by the reign of Emperor Meiji (1852-1912; reign 1868-1912), it was an era of rapid modernization as Japan remade itself as a nation, both figuratively, as it transformed from a feudal society based on samurai culture. Drawing on Western models, the old social classes were abolished, the army was reformed, a navy was created, and industries adopted emerging modern technologies. In the artistic communi