The National Museum of Art of Romania invites us, today, starting 5pm, to a free guided tour of the Japanese prints exhibition “Pilgrimage to Mount Fuji. Prints by Katsushika Hokusai”. The presentation will be delivered by Carmen Brad, the curator of the exhibition and a specialist in Far Eastern art. Running until late July 2011, the exhibition presents the series titled “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”, signed by the celebrated painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).
This series of prints, subsequently supplemented by another ten works, was first published between 1829 and 1833. Given their outstanding success, the 46 prints came out in several editions, both during the artist’s life and posthumously.
Hokusai’s landscapes are a reference point in the history of Japanese ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) painting and engraving. The extraordinary popularity they enjoyed is largely due to the important place Mount Fuji – here a pretext for deep reflection on the relation between man and nature and the frailty of human condition – holds in the Japanese collective imaginary.
An Hour for Art Places available: 25. Those who wish to take part in the tour should send an e-mail to mariana.banciu@art.museum.ro.
