Hokusai

With more than 200 works, including masterpieces that have never been exhibited before, the HOKUSAI exhibition at Palazzo Blu in Pisa is a unique opportunity to learn about the greatest exponent of Ukiyoe, the artistic strand related to the lifestyle and tastes of the newly emerging classes in the then city of Edo, now Tokyo.

Katsushika Hokusai, an eccentric and multifaceted artist, was able to portray nature, everyday life and the many facets of the society of his time with originality, combining traditional Japanese painting with the techniques of Western art, becoming an incredible interpreter of the reality around him.

It will be possible to discover a new Hokusai, yes the master of iconic views and scenic beauty, as for the famous print “The Great Wave by the Kanagawa Coast” that consecrated him to the general public, but also a refined and poetic artist: from the surimono advertising cards and invitations produced in limited editions and enriched with silver and gold pigments, to the paintings on roll marked by depictions of seductive beauties or sacred and legendary animals in their prime, from the volumes dedicated to Manga and used as drawing manuals for painters to the silographs dedicated to literary and poetic characters, the last ones before devoting himself totally to painting.

A unique artist, capable of influencing not only the greats of the past such as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Gallé, but also contemporary artists. In fact, the exhibition is enriched by the presence of “Memory of Waves,” an immersive work by the renowned TeamLab collective, which reinterprets the visual and symbolic power of waves with a technological and immersive language, bringing Hokusai's legacy to the present day.