Oakland, CA—June 1, 2009. The Mills College Art Museum is pleased to present Reverberations: Japanese Prints of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake curated by Mills College Visiting Assistant Professor Deborah Stein and the Mills College Museum Studies Workshop, on view from June 17 through August 2, 2009.

An opening public reception will be held on June 17 from 5:30–7:30 pm with a curator walk-through at 6:00 pm. Other events include a family printmaking workshop on June 28 from 3:00–5:00 pm and a film screening of Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes on July 22 at 7:00 pm. All events are free and open to the public.

“Reverberations is a collective effort to examine how art and natural disaster intersect in complex ways,” said Stein. “It offers insight into tragedy and loss, making available the experience of disaster in a way that scientific data and photographs alone simply cannot.”

Over a period of nine months, Stein and seven Mills College students from the Museum Studies Workshop, a course taught in the Art History Program at Mills College, found 18 unknown and unpublished prints in the Mills College art collection that became the basis for their investigation and this exhibition.  

“This visual response to a natural disaster constitutes a record of despair and renewal specific to this period; yet, it is a strikingly familiar record of human suffering and survival that resonates with the Bay Area’s own experience with the destruction wrought by earthquakes,” said Jacquelynn Baas, interim director of the Mills College Art Museum.

The featured Japanese woodblock prints were created in the aftermath of the great Kanto earthquake of September 1,1923. Immense fires and strong winds devastated many cities in the Kanto region of Japan, including Tokyo, Yokohama, and Chiba. Everything was destroyed in a matter of days. Many print shops, including the famous Watanabe print shop, lost their equipment and woodblocks from the earthquake and fire. Afterwards, as surviving citizens rebuilt their lives in the wake of ruins, artists and publishers created new works to document the disaster.

The prints were commissioned as a set to be executed by a number of different artists. They exemplify a wide variety of print styles and practices during the Taisho Era and convey multiple levels of emotion and a visceral intensity, said Stein.

Exhibition dates: June 17–August 2, 2009
Public reception: June 17, 5:30–7:30 pm
Family printmaking workshop: June 28, 3:00–5:00 pm
Film screening: Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes, July 22 at 7:00 pm

The Mills College Art Museum, founded in 1925, is a dynamic center for art that focuses on the creative work of women as artists and curators. The museum strives to engage and inspire the diverse and distinctive cultures of the Bay Area by presenting innovative exhibitions by emerging and established national and international artists. Exhibitions are designed to challenge and invite reflection upon the profound complexities of contemporary culture.

Docent tours of the exhibition are available by appointment. Please call the museum at 510.430.2164 to schedule a docent tour. The museum hours are Tuesday–Sunday 11:00 am–4:00 pm and Wednesday 11:00 am–7:30 pm. For more information, visit the http://www.mills.edu/museum/

Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering a dynamic progressive education that fosters leadership, social responsibility, and creativity to approximately 950 undergraduate women and 500 graduate women and men. Since 2000, applications to Mills College have more than doubled. The College is named one of the top colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report, one of the Best 368 Colleges by the Princeton Review, and ranks 75th among America's best colleges by Forbes.com. Visit us at www.mills.edu.

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