Scene through Wood: A Century of Modern Wood Engraving – exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and touring

The Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) was founded in London in 1920 by leading artist-engravers of the day including Lucien Pissarro. Anne Desmet was appointed by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to curate this major survey exhibition to mark the centenary. Curated largely from the Museum’s extensive holdings of wood engraved prints, with significant additional loans from private collections, the exhibition was due to open on 27 March 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus. It opened at the Ashmolean in August until November 2020 before touring to the Dorset Museum, Dorchester, and the Heath Robinson Museum, Pinner, in 2022 and the St Barbe Museum, Lymington, from February to April 2023. The fully illustrated exhibition catalogue was published by Ashmolean Museum Publications in March 2020 and is available from the Museum www.ashmolean.org and the SWE www.woodengravers.co.uk

March 2020