Hokusai, from Coast to Coast

From October 19, 2023 to January 21, 2024, the Seattle Art Museum presents the exhibition “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence, from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston”

Source: Seattle Art Museum · Image: Katsushika Hokusai, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. Woodblock print, 1831

Thanks to the popularity of the instantly recognizable “Great Wave”—cited everywhere from book covers and Lego sets to anime and emoji—Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. This touring exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), takes a new approach to the work of the versatile master, pairing more than 100 of his woodblock prints, paintings, and illustrated books from the MFA’s collection with more than 200 works by his teachers, students, rivals, and admirers. This is a rare opportunity to explore Hokusai’s impact through the centuries and around the globe, on artists from Winslow Homer and Yoshitomo Nara to Loïs Mailou Jones and John Cederquist.

“Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence, from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” is not the only exhibition devoted to Japanese art currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum. From July 21 to December 3, the museum is also hosting “Renegade Edo and Paris: Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec”, an exhibition exploring the shared subversive hedonism that underlies both Japanese ukiyo-e prints and the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.