Exhibition of traditional woodblock prints opens in Beijing

A major exhibition displaying traditional woodblock printing techniques opened at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing on Sept 5, and will run until Sept 16.

About 200 exquisite works from Shizhuzhai (Ten Bamboo Studio), an art museum in the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou, are being exhibited at the event which has been jointly organized by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, the Ancient Books Preservation and Conservation Association of China and the Hangzhou city government. The program is also supported by the China National Arts Fund.

The works, which cover a wide range of subjects including Buddhism, replicas of ancient landscape paintings and the 24 Solar Terms, were created by Wei Lizhong, an artist who has spent the last 30 years reviving ancient woodblock techniques and promoting them globally.

Woodblock prints first appeared in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and reached their peak in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), where they represented traditional Chinese aesthetics. Wei's studio borrowed the name Shizhuzhai from a renowned printing house in the Ming Dynasty.

The technique was inscribed as a national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2014. The set of printed works on the 24 Solar Terms were acquired by the National Art Museum of China and the National Library of China especially for the exhibition.