Shin-hanga, the Renewed Japanese Art of Block Printing

Shin-hanga, literally "new prints", was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan that revitalized the traditional art form rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). The publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, noting the decline in xylographic production due to competition from new imported techniques such as photography and lithography, was the movement's greatest promoter. He gathered around him artists whose drawings were printed using traditional woodblock printing techniques. While retaining classic themes such as landscapes, beautiful women, kabuki actors and flowers and birds, shin-hanga prints also reflect a modernizing Japan and seduce with a new aesthetic and an extremely high production quality. Inspired by European Impressionism, the artists also incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods.

The Shin-hanga exhibition currently being run by the Brussels Art & History Museum features hundreds of Japanese prints from two private collections in the Netherlands, as well as sketches, studies and prints from the collection of the grandson of the publisher Watanabe. and a selection of prints from the rich collection of the museum. So let's go discover it together!

Please buy your tickets online through the link in the activity, choose the January 7, 10 AM time slot. We will meet at the entrance of the museum at 10:00 AM sharp. Activity organized in collaboration with the Antwerp Travel Group.