MY HEAD IS STILL SPINNING........Hokusai, THE OLD MAN WHO WAS CRAZY ABOUT ART......
Hokusai, is perhaps not a name that we pronounce every day. Yet if you saw this engraving of « The Great Wave » which is one of the series « Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji » I can hear many voices saying « of course…… » At the exhibition yesterday a couple of women were in front of me looking at it and the conversation went something like this….. The Great Wave (around 1830-1834) « I didn’t realize it was so small » (25,9x37,2) « But we all know it…… » (pause) « My goodness, I never knew there were boats - are they fisherman? Shipwrecked? » I always describe this engraving as the « Mona Lisa » of Japan. I’m sure many before me have described it as such. The mystery. The catastrophe, the size of the wave, it’s foam and no way could those fisherman survive. The same day I went to see the film « Silent in Water » A Franco-spanish-japanese film where the inhabitants on a small island have an incredible respect for nature….the typhoon scenes are terrifying and Hokusai’s waves ar