The biggest ever exhibition in Europe of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints, by leading artists from Chinese mainland, was unveiled Friday in the British Library, one of the most distinguished academic institutions in the world.

Comprising around 200 prints from more than 90 Chinese artists aged 20s to 80s, the display, titled "Chinese Printmaking Today", highlights the contemporary re-evaluation of an art form invented by ancient Chinese about 1000 years ago.

The artists, whose subjects range from landscapes to abstracts, have developed both traditional forms and new categories of prints, Frances Wood, head of the library's Chinese Collections, told Xinhua.

"They express modernism through the representation of architectural subjects, realism in portraiture and figure studies, and more lyrical styles depicting landscape and natural subjects, as well as post-modern conceptual work," said Wood, hailing their works as "a creative explosion".

The exhibition also showcases a huge variety of formats, from vast images shown through multiple sets of hanging scrolls to single sheet prints, and from the tiny to the monumental.

The techniques used to create these woodblock printings also vary. There are multi-block color printed works using water-soluble and oil-based inks, as well as embossing, ink-rubbing and reduction-printing.

The display is accompanied by a 224-page catalogue fully illustrated in color, compiled and edited by Dr Anne Farrer with Sotheby's Institute of Art based in London.

According to the British Library, the catalogue is the most comprehensive source book to date published in English on contemporary Chinese printmaking. 

The exhibition is free to the public and will run through until March 7, 2004.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2003)