Collection: Hokusai Katsushika

Hokusai’s cultural revolution 

Hokusai’s works arriving in Europe sparked a profound cultural revolution: initially arriving by chance as packing material for porcelain, they captured the attention of artists such as Monet, Degas, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Whistler. The great Western masters drew from them a compositional freedom and formal simplicity that radically transformed the course of modern art.
Hokusai was, and remains, a bridge between the Eastern and Western worlds: the artist who, more than any other, made possible a deep and lasting cultural dialogue between two artistic traditions that continue to influence and enrich each other. Two centuries later, his revolution remains evident and vibrant: from contemporary manga to design, fashion and tattoos, and even digital graphics.

The “old man mad about drawing”

The tireless pursuit of perfection accompanied the Master to his final moments. At the age of 89, his last words were: “If Heaven had granted me another ten years of life, or even five, I might have become a true artist.” This thought holds the secret of his greatness: an absolute humility that enabled him to transform every image into something pulsing with life.

“From the age of 6, I felt the desire to paint anything I saw around me; after 50, I had already created a good number of works, but I was not at all satisfied with my work. Only now, at the age of 75, have I partially understood the true form and character of birds, fish and plants. At 80, I will certainly have made further progress: so that when I am 90, I will be able to penetrate the true essence of things. At 100, I will reach a high level of perfection and, at the age of 110, everything I create, every dot and every line I draw, will itself be alive. I invite everyone who knows me then to verify the truth of these words. Written at the age of 75 by someone once known as Hokusai and now called ‘the old man mad about painting.’”
Text from Hokusai’s spiritual testament, engraved in the colophon of One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.