Jeg tager nu til Berlin for at se en eksklusiv udstilling med billeder af den japanske maler og tegner og træsnitkunstner Hokusai. Jeg har skrevet om ham før - senest da jeg så udstillingen på Ordrupgaard hvor det blev dokumenteret at hans indflydelse på impressionisternes mestre var enorm. http://petersudsigt.blogspot.com/2011/03/nar-blending-i-malerkunsten-frer-til-en.html
Begge mine to faste aviser, Politiken og Information, havde store anmeldelser af den nye udstilling i Berlin. De var var helt euforiske. Det drejer sig om billeder i original der er blevet fundet sent, og som normalt ikke udstilles - heller ikke i Japan.
Det var fruen, som også er meget begejstret for Hokusai, der foreslog at vi skulle tage ned og se udstillingen, når vi nu havde tid og mulighed for det. Så det gør vi.
Nedenfor lidt oplysninger om manden. Han er ikke kedelig. Og mildest talt arbejdsom og produktiv ud over alle grænser. Og af hans biografi at dømme tilhører han i den grad den særligt kreative personlighed, fx dette at han havde problemer med at finde sig til rette i skolen. Og gennemgående var svær at omgås. Han var i øvrigt fader til Manga-tegneseriestilen.
Han havde i sit liv mange identiteter (mere en 30) tilsyneladende. Og det sidste billede han producerede underskrev han med "den tegne-tossede gamle mand."
Først da han var 70 år gammel syntes han at han nogenlunde havde forstået det med at tegne naturens former. Selv er jeg nu 68 år gammel, så der er håb forude.
Hokusai (1760-1849) lived during the Tokugawa period (1600 to 1867). In a Japan of traditional Confucian values and feudal regimentation, Hokusai was a thoroughly Bohemian artist: cocky, quarrelsome, restless, aggressive, and sensational. He fought with his teachers and was often thrown out of art schools. As a stubborn artistic genius, he was single-mindedly obsessed with art. Hokusai left over 30,000 works, including silk paintings, woodblock prints, picture books, manga, travel illustrations, erotic illustrations, paintings, and sketches. Some of his paintings were public spectacles which measured over 200 sq. meters (2,000 sq. feet.) He didn't care much for being sensible or social respect; he signed one of his last works as "The Art-Crazy Old Man". In his 89 years, Hokusai changed his name some thirty times (Hokusai wasn't his real name) and lived in at least ninety homes. We laugh and recognize him as an artist, but wait, that's because we see him as a Western artist, long before the West arrived in Japan.
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing." -- Hokusai
De her træsnit har jeg i kopi på mine vægge:
(Fortsættelse følger. Se tanker efter udstillingsbesøget på: http://petersudsigt.blogspot.com/2011/09/hokusai-og-hockney-to-alen-ud-af-et.html )
