Graphic Archive

The Graphic Archive presents six works showing how artists use line, pattern, and symbol to create meaning. From Japanese prints and African American modernism to architectural relief, American trompe l’oeil, and Egyptian symbols, this gallery explores the global history of graphic art.

The exhibition opens with Hokusai’s Shower at the New Yanagi Bridge, where rain lines turn weather into rhythm. Next, Hiroshige’s softer landscape balances clear lines with gentle shading—both show lines create movement, mood, and place.

With Sargent Claude Johnson’s Lenox Avenue, stylised shapes and sculpted lines bring a modern style rooted in African American life. Lachaise’s ceiling tile follows, in which architectural relief turns the human form into decorative shapes. Both show 'graphic' art extends beyond prints into three dimensions.

Next is John Frederick Peto, whose trompe-l’oeil still lifes use illusion, texture, and collage to reveal how the everyday can be graphic. The exhibition ends with the Wedjat Eye—an Egyptian symbol of protection and healing. Its simple lines and curves remain one of history’s most enduring graphic images.

These works show artists everywhere use line, shape, and symbol not just to show objects but to interpret the world. Graphic art becomes a shared language of imagination and identity.