Lasting Impressions: Japanese Prints from the Read-Simms Collection

The Gibbes Museum of Art is home to one of the most significant collections of Japanese woodblock prints in the Southeast. This exhibition will present 60 exceptional and rare prints amassed by Charleston collector, Motte Alston Read, and his sister, Mary Read Hume Simms of New Orleans, during the first decades of the 20th century. The Read-Simms Collection reflects the full range of popular print subjects by master Ukiyo-e artists of the Edo period, from famous Kabuki theater actors portrayed by Suzuki Harunobu and T?sh?sai Sharaku in the 18th century, to vibrant landscapes by Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai in the 19th century.

The exhibition is  accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring entries by Japanese fine art specialist, Sebastian Izzard Ph.D., and an in-depth essay on the collectors by Sara C. Arnold and Stephen G. Hoffius. This exhibition made possible by our generous sponsors Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, the Read-Simms Fund, Katherine M. Huger, and Artizom.

Traveling Exhibiton Dates

Bascom Center for the Visual Arts: September 10 – December 3, 2022

Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg:  April 22 - August 13, 2023