Li Xiu. Courtesy Ashmolean

Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is showcasing its newly formed collection of late 20th century and contemporary Chinese prints.

Most of the works will be on display to UK audiences for the first time, and are from 52 established printmakers from mainland China. They were acquired to complement the museum’s substantial collection of Chinese paintings from the same period.

The exhibition, Chinese Prints 1950-2006, runs in two parts, the first until December 6 2007, with the second set of prints on show from December 18 to February 24 2008.

Exhibits include New Year’s pictures from the 1950s, propaganda woodcuts produced during the Cultural Revolution period of the 1960s and 70s, and those made after China’s open door policy from the 1980s to the present day.

Chen Yuping. Courtesy Ashmolean

It highlights the development of Chinese printmaking in its historical context, and shows how artists have responded to the nation’s cultural, political and economic transformations through their work.

Techniques used range from the traditional multi-block water-soluble woodblock prints, to western-influenced etchings, lithographs and screen prints.

As well as socialist realist designs, folk tradition and compositions showing how the artists have both adopted and rejected western stylistic conventions.

Chinese woodblock printing has been used for more than a thousand years and have been used to illustrate religious texts, books and literary works, as well as being used for popular prints.

Chao Mei. Courtesy Ashmolean

Traditionally, the process was anonymous, with different craftspeople carrying out the tasks of designing, block-cutting and printing. From the 1930s, however, the process was adopted by individual artists, and many artisans were inspired by western printmakers.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, printmaking departments were established in most art schools and the artists were brought into the mainstream, politically-controlled strand of art and literature.

Since China has liberalised and engaged more fully with the rest of the world, artists have had more freedom to develop their own responses to traditional styles and outside influences.