It has recently come to my attention that contrary to previous belief, knowledge of Hokusai and one of his most famous woodblock prints (see title of entry), is NOT common. It came to me while in discussion with a well-rounded fellow artist. The friend was describing some of the inspiration for a tattoo sleeve in the works, and mentioned that the tattoo artist had essentially introduced him to Hokusai's prints. I was then asked if I knew who that was. I responded with a "Yes" pronounced similarly to "Duh". "You mean you seriously didn't know who that was? Don't you know The Great Wave?" Since that day, I have started conducting small surveys of the topic while conversing with friends and family. One friend seemed agitated that I would ask and that I suggest that it should be known to them as well (I admit: I do have a tendency to have a "tone"). I commented that the print was nearly as important to Art History as the Mona Lisa. That returned a few crazy looks. In response, it was said that this particular work simply belonged to a genre, as to explain why it would be new to this artist and the newly tattooed friend. But then I began to think more on it. What does genre really mean to describe? According to Merriam-Webster, it is:
1 : a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
2 : kind, sort
3 : painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically
Essentially, genre can apply to any work of art created in history (or now for that matter)—which doesn't seem to make a case for not knowing Hokusai, his work, or influence on painting and art making as a whole. The point here though, isn't to fault my two friends as artists (though I find a little offense for the neglect of Japanese art collectively), nor their failed Art History instructors. Well, at least not directly. The point is that it was a departure to another thought: Hokusai, and furthermore much of the Japanese scroll painters (also giving a nod to their Chinese and Korean influences), were important in a large way to Art History, not just in the Japanese world. And they deserve to be acknowledged as such, and not a chapter half-read from Gardner's Art Through the Ages. After having visited a recent Freer Gallery show of Japanese art from the Edo period, I have began to consider just how modern these artists were for their time, with their use of clean line, abstraction, patterning, and simple brush stroke.
One could say so boldly that they knew and practiced modern art, minimalism, and abstract expressionism before we even conceived of it (consider the image at top: detail of a landscape on a scroll inked in Japan, 1495). I imagine the influence to have functioned much like African masks did for Picasso and his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
For myself and my two friends, we couldn't make the work we do without—to be direct—Modern art having happened, and Modern art couldn't have occurred without both the ideas that produced Mona Lisa, nor those that produced The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
2 : kind, sort
3 : painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically
Essentially, genre can apply to any work of art created in history (or now for that matter)—which doesn't seem to make a case for not knowing Hokusai, his work, or influence on painting and art making as a whole. The point here though, isn't to fault my two friends as artists (though I find a little offense for the neglect of Japanese art collectively), nor their failed Art History instructors. Well, at least not directly. The point is that it was a departure to another thought: Hokusai, and furthermore much of the Japanese scroll painters (also giving a nod to their Chinese and Korean influences), were important in a large way to Art History, not just in the Japanese world. And they deserve to be acknowledged as such, and not a chapter half-read from Gardner's Art Through the Ages. After having visited a recent Freer Gallery show of Japanese art from the Edo period, I have began to consider just how modern these artists were for their time, with their use of clean line, abstraction, patterning, and simple brush stroke.
One could say so boldly that they knew and practiced modern art, minimalism, and abstract expressionism before we even conceived of it (consider the image at top: detail of a landscape on a scroll inked in Japan, 1495). I imagine the influence to have functioned much like African masks did for Picasso and his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
For myself and my two friends, we couldn't make the work we do without—to be direct—Modern art having happened, and Modern art couldn't have occurred without both the ideas that produced Mona Lisa, nor those that produced The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
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