Enfilade

George Cruikshank, A Scene in the New Farce of the Lady and the Devil, 1820, hand-colored etching, sheet: 25 × 35 cm
(Chapel Hill: Ackland Art Museum, 2025.33.38)

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Opening in December at Ackland Art Museum:

Laughing Matters: Social Satire from an Unruly Age

Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 11 December 2026 — 28 March 2027

Humor has long provided artists with a powerful means of exposing folly, challenging authority, and scrutinizing human behavior. Laughing Matters: Social Satire from an Unruly Age brings together British and French prints from the 1770s to the 1840s, to explore how artists responded to an era of profound social and political change through pointed visual commentary layered with meaning.

Drawn from a recent gift of over 300 prints to the Ackland from Robert and Jane Sylvester, the exhibition features 100 works, including hand-colored etchings and lithographs, by such artists as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank, and Honoré Daumier. Arranged thematically, the exhibition reveals how artists used exaggeration, visual puns, and the interplay of words and images to scrutinize a range of topics, from the arts, musical performance, and the weather to love and marriage, social status, and politics. Although the humor in these prints speak directly to the events and concerns of their time, their social critique and visual language remain just as relevant and impressive today.

From the press release for the exhibition:

An Enamel Revolution: China and the World

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, 20 October 2026 – 21 February 2027

Curated by James Lin with Joyce Chou

An Enamel Revolution: China and the World is a unique collaboration between The Fitzwilliam Museum and the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The display explores the history of painted enamel in China, a field that has, until recently, received relatively little scholarly attention. Beginning with the transfer of painted enamel technology from Europe to China in the late seventeenth century, the display traces the emergence of hybrid artistic traditions that developed through interactions between China and the wider world. In doing so, it offers new perspectives on cross-cultural exchange, artistic innovation, and global trade.

Elephant–Handled Zun Vase with Flowers, Fruits, and Insect, late 18th to early 19th century, copper and painted enamel (Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong).

The display features an exceptional group of painted enamel objects on loan from the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, many of which are being shown in the United Kingdom for the first time. These works are displayed alongside important examples from The Fitzwilliam Museum’s own collection. Together, they reveal how Chinese craftsmen working in the imperial workshops of Beijing and the commercial workshops of Canton adapted and transformed the painted enamel technique to decorate objects made of porcelain, glass, silver, and copper.

The first section of An Enamel Revolution examines the origins of painted enamel through the lens of international exchange. Painted enamel on copper became fashionable in Europe from the late fifteenth century onwards and was widely used for luxury objects such as watch cases, miniature portraits, snuffboxes, and other personal accessories. These finely crafted items were often regarded as precious jewels. Centres of enamel production flourished in places such as Limoges, in France and Nuremberg, in Germany before the technique eventually reached China.

Following the lifting of the maritime trade ban in 1684, European painted enamel technology entered China through the southern port of Canton brought by alongside missionaries, merchants, and diplomatic envoys. The Kangxi (r. 1662–1722), Yongzheng (r. 1723–1735), and Qianlong (r.1736–1795) emperors were fascinated by this sophisticated European art form and instructed craftsmen in the imperial workshops to master and develop enamel production. Painted enamels were created to decorate the imperial palaces and to serve as prestigious diplomatic gifts. At the same time, works by renowned European enamellers, including Jacques I Laudin (c. 1627–1695), were brought to China as models for local craftsmen to study and emulate. As European enthusiasm for Chinese art and design—often described as ‘Chinoiserie’—grew, Chinese workshops also began producing enamels specifically for overseas markets.

Sweetmeat Set with Flower, Butterfly, and Scholars’ Rock Designs, China, 1750–1800, copper and painted enamel (Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Gift of Mr. Anthony K. W. Cheung in memory of Prof. Xu Xiaodong, 2024.0138).

The second section explores painted enamels within the context of global commerce. To meet the demands of international consumers, Chinese artisans adapted designs inspired by ancient bronzes, jade carvings, and ceramics for domestic patrons, while also producing a wide range of objects tailored to foreign tastes. Large quantities of tableware and household items, including candlesticks, tureens, punch bowls, and breakfast sets, were commissioned for the growing European middle and upper classes. Workshops also created objects in Islamic-inspired forms and produced Benjarong-style wares for markets across Southeast Asia and beyond.

This section further highlights tea and coffee services—including tea caddies, kettles, teapots, cups, and saucers—which reflect the growing popularity of these newly fashionable beverages during the eighteenth century. Armorial enamels bearing coats of arms commissioned by European aristocratic families were specially made to commemorate marriages, alliances, and other significant occasions. Once these luxury goods arrived in Europe, many were redistributed through complex trade networks to regions far beyond their original destinations.

The dazzling painted enamels seen in this display tell stories of the movement of materials, technologies, artistic knowledge, and ideas across continents. They reveal how innovations travelled between East and West, how artistic traditions were adapted and transformed through cultural encounters, and how new products were created, traded, and consumed within an increasingly interconnected world. The development of painted enamel in China was made possible through the contributions of imperial patrons, European missionary intermediaries, and skilled craftsmen working in Jingdezhen, Beijing, and Canton (today’s Guangzhou). Together, they played vital roles in shaping one of the most remarkable examples of artistic exchange and early globalisation in the eighteenth century.

An Enamel Revolution: China and the World is jointly organised by the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and The Fitzwilliam Museum, with generous support from the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The exhibition is curated by Dr James Lin, Senior Curator of Chinese Art at The Fitzwilliam Museum and supported by Dr Joyce Chou, Research Associate at The Art Museum, CUHK.

From the press release for the exhibition:

Floating Worlds: Prints from Osaka and Kyoto

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 30 January — 18 April 2027

Curated by Russell Kelty

Shunkōsai Hokushū, Actors Arashi Kichisaburō II as Prince Koretaka and Nakamura Utaemon III as Katō Masakiyo, 9/1820, Osaka, color woodblock print (nishiki-e) with metallic pigment, ōban, 38.6 × 26.3 cm (Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, Bequest of M.J.M. Carter AO).

The Art Gallery of South Australia will present Floating Worlds: Prints from Osaka and Kyoto from 30 January 2027, the first exhibition in Australia to explore the unique woodblock print culture that emerged in Japan’s historical Kamigata region of Osaka and Kyoto during the Edo period (1603–1868). Through striking images of Kabuki actors, celebrated beauties, the supernatural, sumo wrestlers, and sweeping landscapes, alongside dramatic examples of samurai armour and finely crafted kimonos, the exhibition will showcase the ‘floating worlds’ of theatre, beauty, fashion, and entertainment that dominated the vibrant urban centres of Osaka and Kyoto. Revealing the artistic innovation, sophistication, and vitality of Kamigata print culture, Floating Worlds will feature works by more than ninety woodblock print artists rarely seen in Australia.

The ‘floating world’ (ukiyo) refers to the pleasure-seeking lifestyle that emerged in Japan during the Edo period. As Japan’s lower classes (chōnin) flourished, they sought escape from their daily obligations and spent their leisure time in theatres, teahouses, and pleasure quarters. From these urban centres arose ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, a celebrated art form that captured the beauty, drama, and enchantment of these entertainment districts. At the heart of this thriving culture were the legendary stars of the kabuki stage, whose rivalries inspired intense public admiration and fuelled the production of woodblock prints commissioned by devoted admirers and collectors.

Jason Smith, Director, AGSA, said, “Floating Worlds will offer audiences in Adelaide and from across Australia a rare encounter with the captivating ‘floating worlds’ of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Osaka and Kyoto. Demonstrating an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and creativity, these prints mark AGSA’s first major acquisition through the M.J.M. Carter AO Bequest that forms the foundation of this exceptional exhibition. Thanks to this transformational bequest, AGSA is now home to the most comprehensive collection of Kamigata prints in Australia, on par with major collections around the world.”

The Hon Kyam Maher MLC, Deputy Premier and Minister for Arts, said, “Floating Worlds will offer visitors an unprecedented opportunity to delve into the remarkable woodblock print culture of Edo-period Japan. Even today, this artform remains hugely influential and enduringly popular, and this exclusive exhibition will be a must-visit event for Japan enthusiasts, families, and art lovers this summer.”

Offering a fascinating insight into the cultural heart of historical Japan, Floating Worlds showcases the craftsmanship and distinctive visual language of woodblock prints from the Kamigata region of Osaka and Kyoto. It was in Kamigata that a distinctive school of woodblock printmaking emerged, with a remarkable mastery of materials and inventive visual language that was distinct from works produced in Edo (present-day Tokyo). While Edo sustained Japan’s most prolific print industry, the Kamigata region cultivated an exceptional aesthetic sensibility and supreme level of artistry.

Floating Worlds will present woodblock print designers who are rarely seen in Australia, including the pioneering Osaka-based artist Ryūkōsai Jokei (1776–1811), whose realistic depiction of the faces of kabuki actors set the standard for succeeding generations. Floating Worlds also includes luminaries of the nineteenth century such as Shunkōsai Hokushū (1802–1832), Shunbaisai Hokuei (active 1828–1836), Ryūsai Shigeharu (1803–1853), and the initiator of the only true familial lineage of artists which continues today, Hasegawa Sadanobu (1809–1879). The masters of the late nineteenth century, such as Utagawa Sadamasu (active c.1830–1854) and Gosōtei Hirosada (active c.1847–1863, d. 1865), also feature. Showcasing more than 200 works from the AGSA collection, alongside loans from public and private collections, Floating Worlds will reveal the artistic traditions, skills, and cultural practices passed down through generations, many of which continue to shape Japanese society today.

Exhibition curator Russell Kelty, Curator of Asian Art, AGSA, commented, “Floating Worlds seeks to reveal the beauty and sophistication of Kamigata ukiyo-e, by offering a new vision of this artform and expanding conventional understandings of Kamigata woodblock prints to present a more holistic view of the culture that captivated the region. Alongside celebrated actor prints are depictions of highly skilled courtesans, sumo wrestlers, comic, and at times bawdy interludes, tales of samurai heroism, landscapes, and scenes from everyday life. Together these works reveal the breadth, complexity, and dynamism of Kamigata visual culture.”