Katsushika Hokusai, The great wave off Kanagawa (1830/32)
For further information: Hokusai. The thirty-six views of Mount Fuji: amzn.to/3lznABN Hokusai Hiroshige.
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Description of the work: The work shows us an imposing wave that is about to hit a traditional Japanese boat where we see some men bent over to row. In the hollow that has formed under the crest of the wave we see Mount Fuji in the distance. In this way Hokusai intends to approach the dramatic moment we live in in the foreground, where three fragile boats move and at the mercy of the power of the sea, with the presence of Mount Fuji, immobile and imperturbable in its sacredness. A truly particular aspect of this work, which represents oriental art in our Western imagery, is the fact that Hokusai owes at least two aspects of our tradition. In the first place, the Japanese master used a typically Western sense of perspective, an aspect that the artist had known through the rare exchanges that the country had with the outside world. Secondly, the same beautiful Prussian blue that characterizes the print was of Western import. When the copies of the wave arrived in Europe, the public responded enthusiastically, first of all the same painters who were greatly influenced by the prints and began to collect them. Monet himself, for example, owned a copy of the Wave. But in a certain sense, Western sensibility was struck by a Japanese work that already brought together elements of European import alongside its own tradition (the perspective and the Prussian blue in fact). If we analyze the work in detail, we notice how it is made up of several successive floors that mark its depth. We can see a first wave, a second, a third and finally we find Mount Fuji on the top floor. Three boats fit between these waves. If we focus on Mount Fuji with its snow-capped peak, we realize that at first sight the mount could be confused with a wave. Similarly, the wave in the foreground has a shape that approaches the same cone as Mount Fuji. Hokusai therefore constructs an image where natural elements interpenetrate and are the broadest expression of the whole. Again in this perspective of harmony of the elements, if we focus on the mountain we realize that the splashes of water seem to become snow. We Westerners are instinctively led to read the work from left to right according to the sense of reading and writing. For us, therefore, the big wave comes first and then the boats. According to a Japanese reading, from right to left, the boat appears first and then the wave that dominates and threatens it. Always remaining within the context of an oriental reading from right to left in this work by Hokusai we can grasp the alternation between opposite poles: passivity and activity, empty and full, feminine and masculine Yin and yang. Often this work is interpreted in its dramatic sense. My personal interpretation of this iconic work is that of a predominance of the aesthetic effect over the dramatic one. It is true, the boats move among gigantic threatening waves, but the elegance of the line of the waves and the sprays that make up arabesques, the natural wedging of the boats that almost seem to take the shape of the waves and then dance with them, gives me the sensation of a great natural symphony where there are no winners or losers but where the natural cycle of events takes place. The wave rises, reaches its peak, then breaks; so the cycle of the movement of the sea continues and so the boats adapt to it. Perhaps they will resist the fury of the elements, perhaps they will be overthrown. We do not know. And before the flow of life, the profile of the sacred Mount Fuji remains impassive. Influences: The influence on Western culture has been very strong. As we have said, many Impressionist painters like Monet and Post Impressionists like Van Gogh admired Hokusai's works. The French composer Claude Debussy created a symphonic poem La Mer inspired by the work of Hokusai. Entering the pop rock field and relatively closer to us, Pink Floyd also paid homage to the wave of Hokusai. In fact, drummer Nick Mason used, during some tours in the 70s of the last century, a custom drums with the motifs of the Hokusai wave. Let me know what you think with a comment!
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10 окт 2020
