“Hokusai” is a groundbreaking documentary and exclusive private view of the British Museum exhibition “Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave”. Filmed in Japan and the UK, the film focuses on the work, life and times of the celebrated Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The exhibition is introduced by Andrew Graham-Dixon and features artists David Hockney, Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling.
Hokusai’s most famous image, known as ‘The Great Wave’, is as widely known and copied as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Constable’s Haywain. The Great Wave, 100 Views of Mount Fuji and other Hokusai works changed modern art, inspiring European artists Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso. Hokusai is the only artist with his own emoji, the father of modern manga, and an inspiration to artists today.
Co-produced with NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), the documentary will spend time with leading scholars who have devoted themselves to the study of Hokusai’s paintings and prints. They are now exploiting the potential of digital art history, using the latest technologies and groundbreaking 8K video from Japan, to look at prints and paintings in incredible detail. Building on years of accumulated knowledge, they reveal new interpretations of famous works, with a few surprises for the art world along the way.
Hokusai lived to 90 and in the last years produced some of his most beautiful and compelling works. In his very last view of Mount Fuji, painted in his final months, a dragon rises exultantly in a dark cloud above the sacred mountain, surely a symbol of the artist’s hopes of immortality. As we know, he did achieve immortality: discovered, revered and copied by the Impressionists, he is still an inspiration for David Hockney and other artists, and counted as one of the world’s greatest artists today. This film and exhibition are bringing him to audiences across the world who will come to know his fascinating story.