Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The Ashmolean began collecting modern and con­temporary Chinese painting in the 1950s, with the result that the Museum's holdings are by now, with the addition of significant gifts from the Reyes fam­ily since the mid-1990s, the foremost in Europe. We have now extended the collection to include modern graphic art in response to the recent renaissance of woodblock prints in China. In this, the Museum has been extremely fortunate in having been able to call on the expertise of Dr Weimin He, Christensen Fel­low in Chinese Painting in the Museum's Depart­ment of Eastern Art. His experience in this field as both a scholar and a working printmaker has made possible the formation of the collection, presented for the first time, in this catalogue. I am immensely grateful to him. He has been a marvellouscolleague during these three years he has been with us atthe Ashmolean. I wish him very good luck in his futurecareer.

The collection is included here in its entirety: its publication coincides with the exhibition 'Chinese Prints 1950-2006' to be held in two parts between October 2007 and February2008 in the Eldon Gal­lery, with generous assistance from Audley Travel. The acquisitions, exhibition and catalogue have all been supported by the Sullivan Fund and we are, as ever, deeply grateful to our benefactors for making these and the associated academic and public events possible.

Dr. Christopher Brown

Director, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford