Katsushika Hokusai
Born: Askausa, Japan 1700.
Died: Honjo, Japan 1849.
Katsushika Hokusai was one of the most significant and creative wood-block print makers of the first half of the nineteenth century. Recognized as a leading artist of the Ukiyo-e-school, the most popular translation of Ukiyo-e being "pictures of the floating world," Hokusai's master was the eminent artist Shunsho. He worked during a period when art was made for and by the common people - artisans, traders and city dwellers. Since this work was widely available - due to its reproducibility - it was bound by the strictures of changing fashion. Popular prints featured courtesans and actors of the Kabuki theatre. Hokusai worked on such images until 1794. in 1798 he began a series of views of Edo, which formed a precursor to his series interest in landscape. Through this subject, Hokusai exercised artistic sensitivity and imagination, rejecting the demand for the increasing garishness of theatrical subject matter. The great wave of Kanagawa became sought after. It is an ingenious and dramatic scene; the fishing boats and Mount Fuji itself are rendered tiny in the presence of the wall of water.
Masterpieces:
The great wave of Kangawa.
The dream of the fisherman's wife.
Morning at Koishikawa.
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Images: google images.