Historically, prints with auspicious themes, landscapes, flowers and birds, and beautiful figures have enriched the lives of people in China.

Most astonishing in that long history was the birth of a revolutionary popular art form now commonly called “Shuzhou prints”, which occurred in the cosmopolitan city of Shuzhou in the 17th and 18th centuries, combining Chinese and Western art traditions.  It was a powerful force that did not stop with Chinese art, but went on to influence art abroad, such as in Japan and Europe.

Unfortunately, many of these Shuzhou prints were discarded in the course of everyday life, and very few have been passed down to present times, meaning we have not developed a deep understanding of the full picture.

In terms of both quality and quantity, the Umi-Mori Art Museum holds the world’s foremost collection of Chinese prints, with over 3,000 works including rare Shuzhou prints from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as works from contemporary times.  In this exhibition we have selected approximately 300 works from the museum collection, including works publicly exhibited for the first time, in the hope that visitors will enjoy this previously unknown world of Chinese prints.

自古以来，中国人的生活中就被年画、风景画、花鸟画、仕女画等各种版画点缀着。

在悠久的历史中，令人瞩目的是在17和18世纪，苏州成为一个国际大都市时，中国和西方艺术的融合衍生了划时代流行艺术的形成，被当今称为苏州版画。这些版画的影响力之强大，不仅影响了以后的中国艺术，也影响了诸如日本、欧洲等其他国家的艺术。

遗憾的是，由于许多苏州版画注定要在日常生活中被消耗和丢弃，因此存留下来的遗物很少，它们的全貌也无从知晓。

海杜美术馆所收藏的中国版画，其完好的保存质量及数量均属世界首屈一指。从罕见的17－18世纪的苏州版画到现代年画，共计3,000多件作品。本次展会选取了博物馆藏品中的300件，多数均为首次展出的珍品，尽情享受这未知的中国版画世界吧。