With more than 200 works, including never-before-exhibited masterpieces, the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu in Pisa is a unique opportunity to learn about the greatest exponent of Ukiyoe, the artistic strand related to the lifestyles and tastes of the newly emerging classes in the then city of Edo, now Tokyo.
Katsushika Hokusai, an eccentric and multifaceted artist, was able to portray nature, everyday life and the many facets of the society of his time with originality, combining traditional Japanese painting with Western art techniques, becoming an incredible interpreter of the reality around him.
It will be possible to discover a new Hokusai, yes the master of iconic views and scenic beauty, as with the famous print “The Great Wave by the Kanagawa Coast” that consecrated him to the general public, but also a refined and poetic artist: from the surimono advertising cards and invitations produced in limited editions and enriched with silver and gold pigments, to the paintings on scrolls marked by depictions of seductive beauties or sacred and legendary animals at their peak, from the volumes dedicated to Manga and used as drawing manuals for painters to the woodcuts dedicated to literary and poetic characters, the last ones before he devoted himself totally to painting.
A unique artist, capable of influencing not only the grand masters of the past such as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Gallé, but also contemporary artists. In fact, the exhibition is enriched by the presence of “Memory of Waves,” an immersive work by the renowned TeamLab collective, which reinterprets the visual and symbolic power of waves with a technological and immersive language, bringing Hokusai’s legacy to the present day.
Katsushika Hokusai
The [Great] Wave at the Kanagawa Coast
Polychrome woodcut, 26 x 37,6 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
The Yahagi Bridge at Okazaki on the Tōkaidō
Polychrome woodcut, 24 x 37,6 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Kōshū Kajikazawa)
Polychrome woodcut, 25,5 x 36,7 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
Sketch of Tangonoura Bay near Ejiri on the Tōkaidō
Polychrome woodcut, 25,5 x 37,1 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
Clear Day with South Wind [Red Fuji] (Gaifu kaisei)
Polychrome woodcut, 24,6 x 38,5 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
The Honganji Shrine of Asakusa in Edo (Tōto Asakusa Honganji)
Polychrome woodcut, 25,7 x 37,5 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa
Katsushika Hokusai
Sketch of Surugachō’s Mitsui stores in edo
Polychrome woodcut, 25,7 x 37,5 cm
Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone,” Genoa