NEW YORK, NY.-
The first exhibition in the United States to present a comprehensive overview of the development of woodcut prints in China over the last 70 years will be on view at China Institute Gallery
from September 16 through December 
NEW YORK, NY.-
The first exhibition in the United States to present a comprehensive overview of the development of woodcut prints in China over the last 70 years will be on view at China Institute Gallery
from September 16 through December 5, 2010. Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language surveys 68 woodcuts, ranging from formative early work, when artists in China first began experimenting with western-style techniques, to the work of important artists working today such as Xu Bing and Zhang Minjie. An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
Chronologically, the first section of the exhibition Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language incorporates 34 works drawn from an important collection of over 200 woodcuts dating from 1937 to 1948. Donated to the Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University by Theodore Herman, professor of geography emeritus, who acquired them from the artists in 1948, this collection is considered to be unparalleled in the United States. As historical documents, they offer a unique perspective on World War II
and especially on the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists (1946-1949). At the same time, the prints present the mastery of a new medium at a point when western techniques had been absorbed and transformed by Chinese artists
, notes Leslie Eliet, who contributed an essay to the catalogue and has collaborated with Dr. Herman over the past 30 years. The remaining 34 works are from 11 important contemporary artists who, after reviewing the Herman collection, selected works that they felt expressed their reverence for the older masters, engaging them in a dialogue across time, as Renee Covalucci, co-curator of the exhibition, writes in the catalogue.
Willow Hai Chang, director of China Institute Gallery, states, Although woodcuts in China have a history of more than a thousand years, modern Chinese woodcuts, often inspired by political events, appeared only in the early 1930s. This unique exhibition covers nearly the entire evolution of these new woodcuts in Chinese modern and contemporary art and shows their extraordinary importance in Chinese art history.
Providing an extraordinary view of Chi