How do temporary exhibitions for famous artworks work? Do the museums pay the original owners to have it exhibited for a period of time? How does it get transported? It must be incredibly expensive to ship priceless artworks
What's the advantage of seeing an original piece of art over a serviceable replica? Especially in the case where the "original" is a print, one of dozens.
Obviously "serviceable" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, a replica might simply not be very good, might not capture some vital characteristic of the thing which makes it a great work.
But otherwise, it's basically that the knowledge of how important and significant this work is puts the viewer in a more receptive frame of mind, right?
To be clear, that's not nothing. I of course know firsthand how much that affects the impact of a painting, museums and galleries care a lot about how they display their collection. But is that it?
The Japanese also look at this from a different angle. A shrine that has been rebuild every few decades is still an ancient shrine to them.
A reprint of an ancient block print is still an original to them.
I get confronted with the preservation of buildings quite often and have to point out now and then that the building they are trying to preserve is nowhere near the original. Through the ages we've modified those building to suit our needs. Why stop now?
It's only a matter of preserving culture with respect do or the past.
Like many things in life, only the original has gravitas. It’s not so much about the technical ability or the properties of the painting, it’s the aura around it that people want to be in.
I only recently learned about this piece after reading Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It's on the cover and it plays a somewhat important role in the story.
The Great Wave is a deservedly famous piece of art, but if it's the only thing of Hokusai that you know, do yourself a favor and look up some of his other work.
He also made some weird art involving an octopus and a woman, which is insightful both for understanding the other side of a famous artist, and also some of the weirder things in modern Japanese manga.
Edit: after I made this comment I was reminded of a comic I saw on reddit, where the artist was bemoaning their dream of getting paid to draw beautiful art, versus the reality where the only people willing to actually pay for art all want furry porn. So maybe not much has changed really, and maybe it says less about Japanese culture, and more about the general human condition.
"The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" is an amazing piece of art (generally considered NSFW).
The entire "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji" series is phenomenal, really a testament to the japanese philosophy of sublime minimalism. But nothing really hits me like The Great Wave, with its dramatic foreground composition (look at those guys clinging to the boats!) and the tranquil majesty of Fuji in the distance.
This alludes to a longstanding debate with no meaningful resolution.
I can see and appreciate Michelangelo's "David", in one of its two best-known Italian renderings (not counting the one in Las Vegas), even though the sculpture's human model, and the artist, are long dead.
I think Banksy has the right idea, even though people do what they can to undermine his works -- by, among other things, chain-sawing them out of the walls the artist chose to make his point, then offering them for sale.
A copy of a book isn't a travesty, so why should a copy of a painting be one?
Or you can support current artists in the same genre such as David Bull at Mokuhankan, who is working hard to keep the art of traditional Japanese woodblock printing alive.
Yes - you can also buy a copy of the Great Wave, and it's beautiful.
I'm the creator of the site and it's great to see it on HN again. Since it was featured in 2023 the site has become even more automated and also searches press releases for related news which I share from time to time on social media. There's currently a digital exhibition on arrival at Tokyo Narita airport, things like that.
The current exhibition in Nantes, France, (whose print is on loan from Japan) sold out very quickly. Before I could even organise my travel! So the fascination with The Great Wave lives on.
The thing I found funny about it is that it's so tiny I almost passed it by without recognizing it at first. It sets high expectations by being called great
If you're interested in these prints, David Bull [1] is a really great resource on YT, in terms of exploring how these were made and lots of history on specific pieces.
He does a whole series on the Great Wave. It was interesting to learn that it's essentially impossible to know if a given impression is "original" as it was widely copied in Hokusai's own lifetime. He compares copies from various museum collections, and finds many of them come from different block-sets.
I grew up in Connecticut. I always thought we had to travel to Boston, Philadelphia, or NYC to see great art.
Then, after I moved halfway across the country I learned about The Hill-Stead museum, the Wadsworth, Florence Griswold museum, New Britain Museum of art, Yale, and even Uconn
Now, I'm kinda melancholy about missing out on these experiences
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 46.3 ms ] threadhttps://hokusai-museum.jp/?lang=en
Obviously "serviceable" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, a replica might simply not be very good, might not capture some vital characteristic of the thing which makes it a great work.
But otherwise, it's basically that the knowledge of how important and significant this work is puts the viewer in a more receptive frame of mind, right?
To be clear, that's not nothing. I of course know firsthand how much that affects the impact of a painting, museums and galleries care a lot about how they display their collection. But is that it?
I get confronted with the preservation of buildings quite often and have to point out now and then that the building they are trying to preserve is nowhere near the original. Through the ages we've modified those building to suit our needs. Why stop now?
It's only a matter of preserving culture with respect do or the past.
[Show HN:] Where can I see Hokusai's Great Wave today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35985221 - May 2023 (114 comments)
Waterfall penance is my favorite.
https://www.tremontauctions.com/auction-lot/hokusai-katsushi...
He also made some weird art involving an octopus and a woman, which is insightful both for understanding the other side of a famous artist, and also some of the weirder things in modern Japanese manga.
Edit: after I made this comment I was reminded of a comic I saw on reddit, where the artist was bemoaning their dream of getting paid to draw beautiful art, versus the reality where the only people willing to actually pay for art all want furry porn. So maybe not much has changed really, and maybe it says less about Japanese culture, and more about the general human condition.
The entire "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji" series is phenomenal, really a testament to the japanese philosophy of sublime minimalism. But nothing really hits me like The Great Wave, with its dramatic foreground composition (look at those guys clinging to the boats!) and the tranquil majesty of Fuji in the distance.
I can see and appreciate Michelangelo's "David", in one of its two best-known Italian renderings (not counting the one in Las Vegas), even though the sculpture's human model, and the artist, are long dead.
I think Banksy has the right idea, even though people do what they can to undermine his works -- by, among other things, chain-sawing them out of the walls the artist chose to make his point, then offering them for sale.
A copy of a book isn't a travesty, so why should a copy of a painting be one?
Yes - you can also buy a copy of the Great Wave, and it's beautiful.
https://mokuhankan.com/index.html
I'm (mis)remembering it was on a math textbook of some kind, perhaps a 90's era high school AP calculus BC text.
The current exhibition in Nantes, France, (whose print is on loan from Japan) sold out very quickly. Before I could even organise my travel! So the fascination with The Great Wave lives on.
He does a whole series on the Great Wave. It was interesting to learn that it's essentially impossible to know if a given impression is "original" as it was widely copied in Hokusai's own lifetime. He compares copies from various museum collections, and finds many of them come from different block-sets.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@seseragistudio
Then, after I moved halfway across the country I learned about The Hill-Stead museum, the Wadsworth, Florence Griswold museum, New Britain Museum of art, Yale, and even Uconn
Now, I'm kinda melancholy about missing out on these experiences