Shikō Munakata’s Prints on View for the First Time Since 1965

Japan Society is pleased to present Shikō Munakata: A Way of Seeing, a new presentation of nearly 100 path-breaking works by the celebrated artist Shikō Munakata (1903–1975). Primarily known for his powerfully expressive woodblock prints in black on white paper, this exhibition reveals the breadth of Munakata’s oeuvre, which spanned from prints to calligraphy, sumi ink paintings, watercolors, lithography, and ceramics and occasionally included a vibrant color palette inspired by the colorful lantern floats in the annual Nebuta Festivals of his native Aomori Prefecture. Organized from Japan Society’s rare collection—the largest Munakata collection in the United States—the installation revisits this imaginative twentieth-century artist.