As we were staying with my parents at Easter, we popped into York city centre on Easter Sunday to see the Making Waves exhibition at York Art Gallery. The exhibition is all about the art of Japanese block printing, where printers would carve wooden blocks that were then painted, to reproduce artworks on a massive scale.
The name Making Waves comes from the painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, which is one of the most recognisable paintings from this method. There is one of the 111 surviving original prints of this on show in Making Waves, on loan from the Maidstone Museum.
Now I keep saying that I’m not really into art, despite visiting a Banksy exhibition and the V&A last month, and now this. I stand by this, and I found the information about how the prints are made more interesting than the prints themselves.
Making Waves starts with an explanation of the process; there’s a video as well as a step-by-step guide. It’s notable that the process generally results in the original painting being destroyed, and so there is usually no surviving ‘original’, just the first print run. I particularly appreciated the display of a modern print, made using the traditional method, on show with some of the wooden blocks that were used to make it.
You then proceed around the exhibition largely in chronological order. The exhibition ends in the modern day, with some newer commissions of block printed art featuring characters from Japanese video games. Also, in the final room, you can use a series of rubber stamps to create your own block print, which is a nice touch.
Japanese Zen Garden
Around the back of the art gallery is a small Zen Garden that has been created for the exhibition. This is connected to the Museum Gardens and leads around the back to the nearby Yorkshire Museum.
We visited York Art Gallery a couple of years ago, and so we didn’t go upstairs to the rest of the galleries this time. The Making Waves exhibition is open until the 30th August this year.
Accessibility
York Art Gallery offers step free access throughout the building, with lift access to the upper floors. Accessible toilets are available, and there is a Changing Places toilet around the corner at York Central Library when that is open.
Parking your car in York city centre is unwise, and many buses stop right outside the art gallery, including Park & Ride services from Rawcliffe Bar. York railway station is a short walk away.
Admission is currently £9 per adult, but there are many discounts available, including free entry for Art Pass and Max Card holders, and York residents aged 16 and under.
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