Check Out “Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography” at the Smithsonian
Now through January 21st, the Smithsonian is hosting a special exhibit titled "Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography." This show features artwork that chronicles the arrival of photographic technology in nineteenth-century Japan, and tracks the influence of photography on other Japanese arts up to the present day.
You’ll be able to see how woodblock printmakers in the 1800s were forced to shift the way they depicted scenes in order to compete with new photographic prints, and you’ll learn how the omnipresence and the ease of mechanically reproducing photographic prints led to the collapse of woodblock printmaking as an industry in the 1900s. The Smithsonian is also hosting a series of exhibition-related events over the next two months, so be sure to check the calendar online if you’d like to pair your visit with a film screening, lecture, or musical performance.
