Riding the crest

A wave of Japonisme

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI, a Japanese printmaker who died in 1849 aged nearly 90, is one of those artists whose long, impressive career has come to be known for a single iconic work. During his lifetime his images of Mt Fuji and his floral prints were widely imitated in the West. But “Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave”—pictured)” is so famous, and has been reproduced in such a wide variety of contexts and formats, that it has swamped his other achievements. It is a testament to the complexity of Hokusai’s oeuvre and to the depth of the collection at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston that in wandering through its new exhibition dedicated to the great Japanese printmaker, one could easily overlook this familiar image among the many riches on display. Surrounded by a host of equally inventive and beautifully crafted prints, paintings and drawings, “The Great Wave” appears as an exemplary, but not exceptional, representative of a versatile master’s work.

One of the revelations of this show is how fresh Hokusai’s works manage to feel two centuries after they were created. Perhaps this has...

from The Economist: Books and arts http://ift.tt/1FxwX8e