“22 Views of Mokuhanga” is an art exhibit open to the public from Sept. 21-Dec. 1, 2023. The opening reception of this exhibition took place Sept. 21, 2023, in the Lyet Gallery of Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. The exhibition was curated and coordinated by Associate Professor of Art Kristi Arnoldand features 22 different pieces of art. All the art presented was created using the same technique: mokuhanga. Mokuhanga is the earliest form of printing in Japan. It is a traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking technique and each piece is unique in style and content. Japanese mokuhanga printing uses mainly water-based ink and is completed by hand; in contrast, American printing techniques use mainly oil-based inks and a printing press.
The opening night of this exhibit featured a table of finger foods, a brief overview of the history of mokuhanga and pamphlets. There were also many students who came to view the exhibit right when it opened, emphasizing the importance of art to students at Elizabethtown College. The pamphlets had an image of all 22 art pieces included as well as an overview of the mokuhanga technique and the artists involved in the collection. In the exhibit itself, there was a small television that played an audio tape over a slide show; it touched on how this collection wanted to bring people of all nationalities together in a commitment to mokuhanga, and to art in general.
The Lyet Gallery is a small room that is long in length and short in width. The format of this room was perfect for the size of the collection. Each piece was given ample space on the wall, but the layout of the room kept the pieces close to one another enough that the viewer could compare and contrast the different works of art from wall to wall.
Arnold began putting the event together in 2022 with Associate Professor of Japanese and Asian Studies Mahua Battacharya, when they received a Strategic Grant to help fund the exhibition. Arnold said these pieces of art are important to Etown because of a new course, ART 160: Japanese Printmaking and Sumi Ink Painting, which coincides with the content in the mokuhanga exhibit along with the new Asian Studies major and minors at the college.
The exhibit had artists featured from multiple different countries, not just Japan. There were American, Polish, British and Japanese artists. Each print by these different artists were hung on the wall (most of them were framed but a few pieces were on tapestry paper), while to the right of the piece was a descriptive paragraph about the artist behind the piece, and what their work means to them. For example, artist Stephen Winiecki from New York wrote that his piece was inspired by “landscapes from the Shin Hanga art movement.” He explained how his love of traveling exposed him to unique locations, which he was then able to incorporate into his artwork. These descriptive tags were added to the collection to give the viewer a reference point on how to interpret the art piece and to incorporate a synopsis of who the artist is. The tags brought relatability and context to the exhibit, further enhancing the appeal of the pieces of art.
Each piece of art was different from the rest. The prints varied in size, color and content. There were large works which were about 56 x 17 inches tall, and then, there were smaller works about 7 x 9 inches tall. Some of the pieces were all black in white, while others were monochromatic, and others consisted of various color schemes. But, while all these artworks were different from one another, they all followed the same mokuhanga printing technique.
One of the oldest prints shown in the exhibit, from 1856, was part of a Japanese text about Buddhism, while there were some prints from as current as 2023. The 1856 print was a testament to the nature of monkuhanga and its ability to maintain potency throughout the years as a consistent printing technique. This one-of-a-kind exhibit featuring works of art from people across the globe, all focusing on the mokhuanga technique, brings an exciting addition to Etown for this fall semester.
