Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print at York Art Gallery

About

image: Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave. c.1829-32. Image Courtesy of Maidstone Museum.

York Art Gallery will present a major exhibition, Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, from 27 February to 30 August 2026. Drawing on the Gallery’s holdings alongside notable loans, the show traces the evolution of Japanese woodblock printing, its materials and processes, and the ways nature, society and cultural change have shaped this celebrated art form.

Exhibition Highlights

Masterworks on display, including Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave, on loan from Maidstone Museum.
Four centuries of printmaking, featuring works from the 17th to the 21st century.
Ukiyo-e focus on the 18th and 19th centuries with artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige.
Techniques revealed, from carving and inking to collaborative workshop practices.
Outdoor extension into York Museum Gardens, where a new Japanese-style garden will begin to take shape.

What Visitors Can Expect

The exhibition presents bold images that document cultural currents in Japan, from city life to landscapes and seasonal motifs. Visitors can explore how printmakers partnered with publishers and carvers, how colour innovations transformed the medium, and how these prints travelled and influenced visual culture internationally.

A curated selection from York Art Gallery’s collection combined with exciting loans.
Interactive moments that illuminate tools, papers and pigments used in woodblock printing.
A programme of talks, workshops and activities designed to support creativity and wellbeing.

Key Information

Dates: 27 February 2026 to 30 August 2026
Venue: York Art Gallery
Admission: Included with general admission to York Art Gallery
Loan highlight: Hokusai’s The Great Wave from Maidstone Museum

About York Art Gallery

York Art Gallery holds a collection of paintings that spans more than six centuries, from 14th century Italian panels and 17th century Dutch works to Victorian narrative paintings and 20th century pieces by artists such as L. S. Lowry and David Hockney. The Gallery also cares for the most extensive and representative collection of British Studio Ceramics, enriched by the acquisitions of Dean Milner–White, W. A. Ismay and Henry Rothschild, and the long term loan of Anthony Shaw’s collection. Highlights are showcased in the Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA). The Gallery and its collections are looked after by the charity York Museums Trust, founded in 2002. The Gallery is supported by Arts Council England.

Why This Exhibition Matters

Making Waves offers context for the global appeal of Japanese woodblock prints, sometimes known as ukiyo-e. The display maps how artists responded to changing tastes, technologies and social conditions, and how hallmark images by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige continue to inform design and visual storytelling today.