When Japan’s borders were opened to the West in 1868 there was a huge surge of interest in all
things Japanese in the West, particularly in Paris. Ukiyo-e prints were collected avidly by the leading Impressionist painters of the day who ‘borrowed’ wholesale from their asymmetric compositions, flowing lines, bright colours and subject matter. This lecture explores how the Japanese aesthetic revolutionised Western art in the late 19th century, and how a new wave of artists today have brought a deeper understanding of the mokuhanga technique into Contemporary Art.
Carol Wilhide Justin is an artist-printmaker who specialises in Japanese woodcut. In 2014 Carol was awarded a residency at the MI-LAB studio, Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, where she was taught the mokuhanga technique by Japanese sensei. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2017 with an MA in Print. She has exhibited in a number of independent shows and larger mixed exhibitions such as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair and Bankside Gallery. Her work is held in private and public collections including Clifford Chance and the V&A. She also teaches Japanese Woodcut at Morley College, the City Literary Institute and the Art Academy.
In 2022 she was commissioned by the Crowood Press to write a book on Japanese Woodcut. It is titled “Japanese Woodcut- Traditional Techniques and Contemporary Practice” and was published in January 2024.