Chicago's Art Institute finds common ground in religious prints

CHICAGO MARRON
By Darren Wan

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

ILLINOIS---The development of the medium of print in both the East and the West is inextricably tied to the dissemination of religious ideas. A comparative exploration of religious prints in Japan and in Western Europe, Spreading Devotion, recently opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit engages the material by closely juxtaposing Buddhist and Christian texts and images. Most of the exhibition consists of didactic images that could be understood by both the educated classes and the illiterate laity. European prints often depict events or personages that are easily identifiable, even by those Christians who are unfamiliar with scripture. [link]