4 must-read books on the Japanese artist

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Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is famed for his print Below the Wave off Kanagawa, generally generally known as The Nice Wave, a picture reproduced innumerable instances all over the world in all types of contexts. However the Japanese artist’s work was a lot extra attention-grabbing than his a lot copied and parodied wave may counsel; anybody who has seen his prints within the flesh shall be blown away by the intricate element and expert craftsmanship. An exhibition opening this month on the Museum of Advantageous Arts (MFA) Boston (Hokusai: Inspiration and Affect, 26 March-16 July) will pair greater than 100 works by the artist with items by these he influenced, from his followers to modern artists resembling John Cederquist and Yayoi Kusama. Right here, the exhibition curator Sarah E. Thompson has picked out 4 books for anybody desirous to know extra concerning the life and artwork of Hokusai.

Hokusai’s Nice Wave: Biography of a World Icon (2015) by Christine M. E. Guth

“This e-book, by one of the vital essential students of Japanese artwork within the English-speaking world, was enormously useful in planning the upcoming exhibition. It discusses intimately the background of Hokusai’s most well-known work—the color woodblock print Below the Wave off Kanagawa from the collection Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji—and traces its resonance all over the world proper as much as the current, with many new insights.”

Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e (1995) by Seiji Nagata (trans. John Bester)

“The late Seiji Nagata was thought of by many to be the world’s high authority on Hokusai. I had the privilege of working with him on the MFA’s Hokusai present that toured Japan in 2013-14 and have become the idea for our personal Hokusai retrospective in 2015. This profusely illustrated e-book remains to be my favorite basic introduction to Hokusai’s work as a result of it covers the complete vary of his variegated profession as a painter, e-book illustrator and print designer.”

Hokusai: The Nice Image E-book of Every part (2021) by Timothy Clark

“For cutting-edge analysis on Hokusai in English, regulate publications from the British Museum, the fruit of their ongoing Hokusai analysis undertaking. Within the meantime, get pleasure from this pleasant facsimile, with detailed commentary, of 103 drawings by Hokusai lately acquired by the museum and exhibited there in 2021-22; they’re most likely from the identical set as comparable drawings within the MFA Boston, all meant for an enormous pictorial encyclopaedia that was by no means revealed.”

The Printmaker’s Daughter (2011) by Katherine Govier

“And now for one thing utterly completely different! This novel is a extremely imaginative biography of Hokusai’s third daughter, Katsushika Oei, who was a outstanding artist in her personal proper—to not point out the query of what number of works attributed to Hokusai in his late interval might have been by her, or considerably assisted by her. Nonetheless it’s possible you’ll think about Oei, primarily based on the scanty surviving details about her, you’ll discover this fictional model fascinating.”

• Hokusai: Inspiration and Affect, Sarah E. Thompson, Museum of Advantageous Arts Boston, 168pp, $29.95 (pb)