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- Foreword
Japanese prints have been collected, studied, analyzed and published constantly throughout the past century. Nineteenth-century European artists, including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and their followers all drew ideas, new compositional techniques, and new uses of perspective from the Japanese ukiyo-e prints, and incorporated them into their expanded subject matter and stylistic development. In the twentieth century, Western ideas, colour, form and expressionistic development were being incorporated, and re-assimilated in the Japanese print ex�pression. The crosscurrent of artistic influence between the European and Japanese artistic traditions has greatly enriched both.
This exhibition, Japan�s Modern Prints, drawn from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria�s collections, and donations, and loans from private collections, is a particularly significant exhibition to be held in Canada this decade. With the foundation of the Asia Pacific Foundation aimed to enrich the mutual awareness and understanding of Asian and Canadian cultures, Japan�s Modern Prints affords us with an opportunity to gain a sensitive insight into the artistic expression of Japan. In the international field of contemporary printmaking Japanese artists are among the leaders.
My thanks go to all donors who have contributed so generously to the Gallery�s collections of modern Japanese prints, and to all the lenders to this exhibition. To Barry Till and the Gallery staff involved in the mounting and co-ordination of the exhibit go my special thanks.
Patricia E. Bovey, Director
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