DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY
UMKC GALLERY OF ART
The Department of Art and Art History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is pleased to announce the opening Cultural Evolution and Diffusion. an exhibition of prints by ten of America’s finest Japanese-American artists. Curated by Dr. William S. Eickhorst, Executive Director of The Print Consortium, the Traveling exhibit is comprised of thirty-six works in different print media. All the works are by first, second, or third generation Japanese-Americans; some were born in the United States, others immigrated from Japan. In various ways, they all maintain ties to their traditional Japanese heritage.
The print as a fine art form has been an important part of Japanese culture dating back to the 8th Century. Over the centuries, it has continued to evolve- perhaps reaching its peak in the late 18th and mid 19th Centuries with the exquisite Ukiyo-e woodcuts of Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi. Some of the artists featured in the exhibit, like Kenji Shinohara, have devoted their lives to becoming Master Printmakers in the finest Ukiyo-e tradition.
Others in the exhibition take a different approach; for example, Yuji Hiratsuka maintains the essence of the traditional Japanese print but “Westernizes” and stylizes his images. Roger Shimomura combines both Japanese and American Iconographic imagery to make poignant statements about race and ethnicity. Ken Iwamasa departs from traditional Japanese techniques in his bifurcated works, but contrasts his images in a manner similar to the Japanese poets use of Kanji, the picture/word alphabet. Koichi Yamamoto depicts the arid American landscape with an elegant simplicity and refinement of form found in the traditional Ukiyo-e print. In all cases, the artists honor the long-standing Japanese tradition of mastering one’s craft.
