Collection: Hokusai Katsushika

The Cultural Revolution of Hokusai 

The arrival of Hokusai's works in Europe triggered a profound cultural revolution: initially arriving fortuitously 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 a compositional freedom and a formal synthesis capable of radically transforming the course of modern art history.
Hokusai has been, and still is today, a bridge between the Eastern and Western worlds: the artist who more than any other has 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 vital: from contemporary manga to design, from fashion to tattooing, to digital graphics.

The “Old Madman of Drawing”

The tireless search for perfection accompanied the Master until the last moment. At the age of 89, his last words were: “If heaven had granted me another ten years of life, or even five, I could have become a true artist.” In this thought lies the secret of his greatness: an absolute humility that was able to transform every image into a pulsating life.

“From the age of 6, I felt the desire to paint anything I saw around me; after 50, I had already made a good number of works but was not at all happy 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 be life itself. I invite all those who will know 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 madman of painting.”
Text taken from Hokusai's spiritual testament, engraved in the colophon of One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.