SEATTLE — One of the most influential artists to ever come out of Japan is the focus on a new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. We talked with Jose Diaz, the Susan Brotman, Deputy Director of Art at the SAM about the exhibit. Below is a transcript of his interview.
"Here at SAM, we're celebrating the opening of, Hokusai, Inspiration and Influence, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
"Hokusai’s probably an artist you've always known. You know him for the Great Wave, but he’s also one of the most famous artists of all time."
"This exhibition has almost 300 works that represent the artists Katsushika Hokusai, but also his peers, his pupils, his rivals, but then the influence he had on Europe as well as contemporary culture today.”
"Hokusai was a student of Katsukawa Shunsho. And the exhibition starts off with beautiful examples of original paintings. A lot of them are folding screens works on paper."
"His third daughter, Katsushika Oi, that was her artist's name, she actually was an artist herself. So we have wonderful and rare examples of his daughter's painting, but also one of her prints and some of her original sketches.”
"If you think of the Great Wave, which is certainly going to be the star of the show, people will, perhaps come to see the Great Wave, but then learn about hundreds of other works that were part of this period. One might come thinking it's the only one in the world but as prints tend to be, they are widely distributed, and there's one in this exhibition."
"Then there's also contemporary works. We have a giant, Great Wave made out of 50,000 Legos that took the artist, two months to make."
"This exhibition opened in Boston earlier this year, it's a traveling exhibition. We are the only West Coast venue. So it's really wonderful opportunity for audiences to come and see it here.
"For SAM, this is an opportunity we couldn't let pass because it really is a suiting exhibition for us."
“Hokusai, Inspiration and Influence” is at the Seattle Art Museum now till January 21.
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