- Wow! Never thought about it like this before:by kaycebasques - 1 week ago
> Because Japanese text is read from right to left, the earliest viewers of The Great Wave would have likely read the print that way too, first encountering the boaters and then meeting the great claw of water about to swallow them. So instead of riding along with the gargantuan wave as you might in a left-to-right reading, they would face right into the massive wall of ocean.
Reversed image from the article to demonstrate: https://artic-web.imgix.net/5c05c38c-1c80-446f-a3db-4b95b42e...
- I have several versions of this, I just enjoy looking at them. I have a desk mat, Lego set, and my favourite:by bloopernova - 1 week ago
https://shop.kozyndan.com/products/uprisings-poster
Would the original be considered impressionist?
- I’ve been seeing this print my entire life, but last year was the first time I realized that there were boats and Mount Fuji. I was always so captivated by the claws on the wave that i never looked away from themby parpfish - 1 week ago
- There is a very good multi part video about creating a facsimile of the print on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhiMCSvtCcby adrianN - 1 week ago
- I first encountered it in a class where we looked at the whole series. It gives this sense of Japan being very diverse of setting, but always in the shadows of Fuji.by adamgordonbell - 1 week ago
I've not been to Japan, and not sure of the accuracy of the size of Fuji but it does make it feel like wherever you are, Fuji is there watching.
- This is another great introduction to the piece that provides an economic background to the subject: https://youtu.be/hGxIS6Vj0cM. In a way it’s similar to a lot of the WPA posters in the US or socialist realist labor posters from the USSR.by xxr - 1 week ago
- My own toots-worth of code version for the bbcmicrobot https://mastodon.me.uk/@bbcmicrobot/111846600975531195by bazzargh - 1 week ago
Mandelbrot wrote about the Great Wave having fractal like properties (eg here in an interview https://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/obrist10/obrist10_index.htm...) but I hadn't seen an attempt to use a fractal to draw it; good subjects for the bbcmicrobot use repetition to help fit the code in so it suggested itself.
- I've always loved this piece of art, and other similar works. One of my favorite contemporary Japanese artists borrows from that tradition, and I never get a chance to plug her work so I'll link to it here. Her name is Asuka Ohsawa: https://www.asukaohsawa.com/drawings-2#/archive/by danielvaughn - 1 week ago
- > If not the most famous artwork in the worldby teo_zero - 1 week ago
Wait, what?? Am I the only one who thinks this sentence is off by an order of magnitude? I'd bet that the Great Wave is not even one of the 10 most famous. Unfortunately I have no evidence to support my statement...
- My claim to fame in life is having hauled a highland bagpipe up Mt. Fuji and blown "Amazing Grace" at the summit.by smitty1e - 1 week ago
Which is a terrible idea. The air pressure at that altitude does not support driving four reeds, especially through a splitting headache.
- - "Japanese woodblock prints are particularly affected by exposure to light that can fade their colors and damage the paper they’re printed on. “It’s always a balancing act between wanting to show works like The Great Wave so that our visitors have a chance to experience them and preserving these works for the future,” Katz says. “We work closely with our conservators to set the parameters for the display of works on paper.”"by perihelions - 1 week ago
Imagine if there were quantum-mechanical minds that were able to appreciate quantum-mechanical art, but, the very act of contemplating, comprehending the art irreversibly degraded it. What a beautifully sad thought! A stark finiteness, like NFT's for conscious experiences.
Dyes are destroyed by the very light that illuminates them to visibility. Observation is destructive.
- Another thing to know is that the prints aren’t all the same: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/great-wave-spot-differenc...by layer8 - 1 week ago
Also, here’s a nice Lego version: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/12/jumpei-mitsui-great-w...
- I remember reading that many of the prints attributed to Hokusai are likely imitations of what was a fairly well known style at the time. Not sure how much truth there is to it? Can't find anything saying as much in a quick google.by somishere - 1 week ago
As an aside, I have a large print of the great wave by my front door. It's such a powerful image. I was also surprised how easy it is to find quality, quite old woodblock prints in Japan at very reasonable prices (tho not by masters!).
- "All I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with" - Katsushika Hokusaiby fuzzythinker - 1 week ago
(He began the series when he was 70 years old)
This quote and fact alone gave me hope. Hope I can remember it when the time comes.
- One thing that strikes me about this work, and Hokusai's other very popular wood block prints, is that he was a total perfectionist.by hiisukun - 1 week ago
He would get things juuuust right, with the colour and the production process, with each copy made, then score/scratch the original so further prints could not be made to a different fashion/standard.
For him to be alive and see bright and garish "Great wave" socks, jumpers, room rugs, key rings and the like would probably cause him such a great conniption he'd drop right back dead again.
But such is the life of popular art work -- it survives its creator and lives by new rules over time.
- The site Great Wave Today maintains a list of where it is on display: https://greatwavetoday.comby NaOH - 1 week ago
- Just in case people aren't aware the article is to promote that the Art Institute of Chicago have one of their three prints of The Great Wave on view for the first time in 5 years. (I suspect they'll rotate through all 3 prints over the next few months to minimise how much each one is in light).by msephton - 1 week ago
- I love the Great Wave and have spent a lot of time trying to get my laser engraver to make a good image of it. The entire series is excellent.by dekhn - 1 week ago
If you enjoy his work, I highly recommend checking out some of this others, such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s...