The Chazen Museum of Art is pleased to present an exhibition of Japanese color woodcuts by Kawase Hasui, drawn primarily from its permanent collection.

Kawase Hasui began designing woodblock prints in the early twentieth-century, a time when lithography was gaining prominence and urbanization was changing the landscape. His images of traditional Japanese landscape and of architecture, using long-established medium and subject matter, appealed to national and international audiences. He portrays a timeless Japan and the fleeting effects of weather, light, and shadow that transform a landscape from moment to moment. His images usually avoid the modern world, though some prints reveal a tiny figure in modern dress or the smokestack silhouette on the horizon.

Hasui continued to design prints through World War II. His inexpensive, attractive works were popular among troops and visitors to postwar Japan. His substantial body of work grew to more than 600 prints over his long career. In 1953, the Japanese government named him a National Living Treasure for his lifelong dedication to the color woodcut. The exhibition Kawase Hasui Color Woodcuts will draw from the Chazen’s fine collection of Japanese prints, which includes forty-seven prints by Hasui, and will span his career.

Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Chazen Museum of Art Council, Brittingham Fund, Hilldale Fund, and Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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The Chazen Museum of Art is open Tuesdays–Fridays 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to galleries and educational events is free. The museum is located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is accessible to wheelchairs from the north entrance (nearest to Library Mall). An elevator is down the corridor to the right.

Parking is available at the City of Madison State Street Campus Ramp (entrances on Frances and Lake streets) and in the University Square parking ramp, entrance on Lake Street. Metered parking is available in the lower level of UW Lot 46, entrances on Lake and Frances streets. Evening and weekend parking is also available in UW Lot 83 under Fluno Center, entrance on Frances Street, and in UW Lot 7 under Grainger Hall, entrance on Brooks Street between University Avenue and Johnson Street.

The Chazen will provide sign language interpreters for associated programs by three-week advance request to Anne Lambert, Curator of Education, weekdays, (608) 263-4421 (voice).