The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance, a first major exhibition at LACMA

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, the first major exhibition on the subject in the United States. Organized by LACMA in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, this groundbreaking show brings together some 100 rare and seldom-exhibited chiaroscuro woodcuts alongside related drawings, engravings, and sculpture, selected from 19 museum collections. With its accompanying scholarly catalogue, the exhibition explores the creative and technical history of this innovative, early color printmaking technique, offering the most comprehensive study on the remarkable art of the chiaroscuro woodcut. "LACMA has demonstrated a continued commitment to promoting and honoring the art of the print," said LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan. "Los Angeles is renowned as a city that fosters technically innovative printmaking and dynamic collaborations between artists, printmakers, and master printers. This exhibition celebrates this spirit of invention and collaboration that the Renaissance chiaroscuro woodcut embodies, and aims to cast new light on and bring new appreciation to the remarkable achievements of their makers." "Although highly prized by artists, collectors, and scholars since the Renaissance, the Italian chiaroscuro woodcut has remained one of the least understood techniques of early printmaking," said Naoko Takahatake, curator of Prints and Drawings at LACMA and organizer of the exhibition. "With its accompanying catalogue, the exhibition documents a decade of research that advances scholarly understanding of a broad range of critical questions, forming a clearer view of the genesis and evolution of this captivating and complex medium." The Chiaroscuro Woodcut is organized chronologically, exploring the contributions of the major Italian workshops to chart the technique's development through the 16th century. The exhibition will be on view at LACMA from June 3 to September 16, 2018. Following its presentation at LACMA, the exhibition travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view October 14, 2018–January 20, 2019.