Making Waves: The art of Japanese woodblock print Oleg Benesch, Helena Cox and Eleanor Jackson
Event details
York Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, explores over 300 years of printmaking in Japan. With over 100 colourful works on display, this exhibition combines prints from York Art Gallery’s collection with a wide range of exciting loans. Highlights include an original print of Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, as well as a full set of samurai armour.
Dig deeper into the themes of the exhibition with this special event celebrating Japanese art and history. Taking the exhibition as a starting point, our speakers - Eleanor Jackson of York Art Gallery and Helena Cox and Oleg Benesch of the University of York - share some of their favourite objects on display and explore the histories behind them.
Join us for a look into the fascinating world of artists, courtesans, kabuki actors, samurai and, of course, Great Waves.
The exhibition, Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, is on display at York Art Gallery until 30 August 2026.
Image credit: Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave, 1831. Courtesy of Maidstone Museum.
About the speakers
Eleanor Jackson is Curator of Fine Art at York Art Gallery and curator of the exhibition Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print. Previously, she was Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. She is an alumna of the University of York, having completed her PhD in the History of Art Department.
Helena Cox is the inaugural Art Curator at the University of York overseeing a collection of over 900 artworks of mainly modern British and international art. Previously Helena worked at Beverley Art Gallery where she curated the exhibition Reflections of Japan in East Riding (2021/22); before then Helena worked at the Japanese Collection of the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic. Helena is also an alumna as she completed her PhD in the History of Art department.
Oleg Benesch is Professor of History and Head of the Department of History at the University of York. He has published widely on Japanese and Chinese history and was most recently the Research Partner on the major exhibition Samurai at the British Museum.
Partners
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