Art Of The Day Weekly
#474 - from 25 May 2017 to 31 May 2017
Hokusai, Under the wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) from Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji. Colour woodblock, 1831. Acquisition supported by the Art Fund. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
IN THE AIR
Hokusai, the Japan that never dies
LONDON – Give the name of a universal Japanese artist. Murakami? Kurosawa? Or rather Hokusai (1760-1849)? The 19th century painter continues to have an international aura. Each of his retrospectives is a success and two of his works have become true icons: his famous Wave and his Mount Fuji, taken from an album with 36 views. In spite of their formal beauty and the lack of means that fascinated both Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec, the force of Hokusai resides in his biography more than in his prints. Like Michelangelo, like Titian, he embodies the eternal unsatisfied artist, who worked until his last breath. The exhibition focuses on this destiny by concentrating on his last three decades. At the age of 60, Hokusai was in the pits, impoverished by a prodigal grandson and mourning after his wife’s demise. He devours his sheets of paper, producing flowers, landscapes and portraits. He was over 70 when he created the Wave and Mount Fuji, after the age of 80 that he painted his most beautiful dragons, which he continued until the age of 90, as he felt he was still making progress. He actually signed his last works with a specific seal so they would be identified as his best works. Hokusai aimed for immortality and reached it in his own way by refusing to give in to the logic of age. Retirement at 60? Forget it!
• Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave at the British Museum, from 25 May to 13 August 2017. The exhibition will be closed from 3 to August to ensure the rotation of the pieces shown.