Friday, June 23, 2017

Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave...


One-word review: stunning.

Two-word review: simply stunning.

Three-word review: simply fucking stunning!

Longer review: The Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum is amazingly good. It mainly focuses on the later career of the Japanese artist and it includes so many things to marvel at that it probably needs a couple of visits to fully appreciate it.

I've been slightly obsessed with Under the Wave Off Kanagawa for a few decades now and that has led to a more general if not particularly educated interest in ukiyo-e. I'm in no way any sort of authority on the subject, but I've read a few books on it and seen exhibitions by other Japanese floating world artists.

It's beautiful stuff and the Hokusai exhibition had some of the most beautiful of all the beautiful stuff I've seen. I'm still computing what I saw and how good it was, which is why this review is offering very little actual information.

The exhibition ends on 13 August. My advice: buy, steal or beg to secure a ticket.

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