About this item
Meet the artist whose majestic breaking wave sent ripples across the world. Hokusai (1760-1849) is not only one of the giants of Japanese art and a legend of the Edo period, but also a founding father of Western modernism, whose prolific gamut of prints, illustrations, paintings, and beyond forms one of the most comprehensive oeuvres of ukiyo-e art and a benchmark of japonisme. His influence spread through Impressionism, Art Nouveau, and beyond, enrapturing the likes of Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent van Gogh.Hokusai was always a man on the move. He changed domicile more than 90 times during his lifetime and changed his own name through over 30 pseudonyms. In his art, he adopted the same restlessness, covering the complete spectrum of Japanese ukiyo-e,"pictures of the floating world", from single-sheet prints of landscapes and actors to erotic books.
About the Author
Rhiannon Paget is the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Japanese Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where she co-curated the major exhibition Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan (Saint Louis Art Museum, Oct 2016-Jan 2017) and co-authored its catalog. She received her doctorate from the University of Sydney, and has published research on Japanese woodblock prints, textiles, board games, and nihonga.
