Kumiko by Beatrice Brandini
An image of the splendid Palazzo Blu
For the first time, Palazzo Blu in Pisa hosts a major exhibition dedicated to the Japanese master “HOKUSAI”, from 24 October 2024 to 23 February 2025.
The entrance to the HOKUSAI exhibition
Works in the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu
Produced and organized by Fondazione Palazzo Blu and MondoMostre, with the contribution of Fondazione Pisa, curated by Rossella Menegazzo, the exhibition through over 200 works from the Edoardo Chiossone Oriental Art Museum in Genoa and the Oriental Art Museum in Venice, highlights the eclecticism of the greatest master of the ukiyoe artistic genre, literally translated as “images of the Floating World”.
HOKUSAI Views of Mount Fuji
The exhibition itinerary is divided into eight sections such as the Famous Views of Japan – The Views of Mount Fuji – Manga and manuals – Representations of poets and poems – Surimono: cards and invitations – The freedom to paint – Hokusai and Japonism and finally Hokusai pop.
Works in the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu
The exhibition highlights the variety of formats and contents with a section dedicated to illustrated volumes, manga and manuals designed to teach drawing or reading, up to representing the printed production reserved for a more cultured and refined clientele (surimono) made up of greeting cards, invitations, advertising of events, literary meetings. This section includes rare works preserved in hundreds of copies at the Chiossone Museum, never before exhibited in a compact manner.
Moments of the press conference
Cosimo Bracci Torsi, President of Palazzo Blu, in a press conference
Alongside the master’s works, the woodcut and pictorial works of his closest students are also presented, including Hokkei, Gakutei, Hokuba, Ryūryūkyō, as well as his daughter Oi who accompanied Hokusai until the end of his career, working alongside him and collecting his artistic legacy according to her own style.
Nara Yoshitomo’s works
The Big Dream, by Simone Legno
Also very interesting is the selection of works by the most famous contemporary Japanese pop artists, such as Nara Yoshitomo, a very famous and highly rated artist, especially for her angry girls, or that of Simone Legno, an Italian artist inextricably linked to Japan, and who has created a specific work for the exhibition. Because not everyone knows that modern manga, much loved by young people all over the world, originate from the numerous sketches drawn by Hokusai himself and published in small volumes from 1814 to 1849 (the year of his death).
Some glimpses of the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Many are also the artists who over time have taken inspiration from the works of the Japanese master. Artists such as Monet, Gauguin or Van Gogh. Even today Hokusai is a source of transversal and universal inspiration, think of the famous wave and its popularity so much so that it has become an icon on a par with the Mona Lisa, Guernica or, more recently, Warhol’s Marilyn.
Some glimpses of the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu, Pisa
I love Hokusai for his delicacy, for his ability to represent a landscape or a scene of daily life with extreme refinement. An artist who has explored various forms of art while always maintaining the same search for perfection.
A moving immersive installation Memory of Waves
Since the age of 6 I have felt the desire to paint everything I saw around me; after the age of 50 I had already done a good number of works but I 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 the age of 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… Text taken from Hokusai’s spiritual testament, engraved in the colophon of One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.
Hokusai The (big) wave off the coast of Kanagawa
Finally, a sincere appreciation to Palazzo Blu that every year offers an exhibition of extraordinary beauty and interest, ranging over a heterogeneous and not at all obvious proposal, making this city, Pisa, more attractive and modern.
Good life to everyone!
Beatrice