AII - Artist - Anonymous 1

Chinese prints

This selection of modern Chinese wood-block prints, recreated in the 1970s by living  Peking artists, is superbly executed in a style that embodies the traditions of  the ancient Chinese masters. Included are sensitive reproductions and fresh interpretations of old artistic themes. The invention of wood-block printing contributed to Chinese civilization in two ways: through the invention of paper as a medium and through the technique or printing or embossing letters on this paper. Early scholarly research traces the invention of paper to 105 A.D. during the Han Dynasty, the second major dynastic division in Chinese historical chronology.  Ts’ai, a eunuch at the Han court, successfully improved the process of making paper by incorporating  tree bark, hemp, rags, and other materials into a composite surface. More importantly he promoted paper as an appropriate vehicle for communication and artistic use. To make relief images such as those reproduced here paper is dampened and pressed across the surface of the intaglio or relief. It is then rubbed with black ink.  Multicolor printing, which requires a separate block for each color, began with the printing of the Diamond Sutra in 1341. In this case the paper is  pressed upon the block as many times as there are colors. Although the changes in Chinese cultural life in recent years have been enormous, the vitality of the ancient Chinese folk life inherent in these reproductions provides meaningful continuity between  ancient and modern China.