Exhibition: The Wave Effect - From Japanese Icon to Global

"Under the Wave, Near Kanagawa" from the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji" (1831-1833) by the artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is a print measuring 26 by 39 cm. Despite its modest dimensions, and although it is a print that was commercially produced in quantities that, by modern standards, are not extraordinary, it holds a place of honor on the list of international masterpieces, and undoubtedly it is the most well-known Japanese work in the world. Mount Fuji stands at the center of the entire series and also at the focus of this print, despite the distortion in the relationship between the size of the wave and the size of the mountain and its popular name "The Great Wave."

Image: ERCK (Erez Kaspin), Nature of Man, 2024, courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition "The Wave Effect - From Japanese Icon to Global" addresses the three elements that make up "The Great Wave" -- wave, boats, mountain -- represented here by 90 works by Japanese and Israeli artists, translated into the language of the period in which they were created. The wave element is examined through works in which it is a stylized force of nature, an abstract border, and a metaphor for social isolation and representations of existential anxiety, not necessarily anxiety related to natural disasters. The boat element among the waves is linked to wartime works in Japanese art and works dealing with personal and national immigration in Israeli art. In the exhibition, Mount Fuji appears in traditional Japanese works that emphasize different perspectives on it, alongside additional Israeli works that express the attraction to the mountain. The exhibition also gives space to young artists who respond to the work with diverse visual means in a provocative and different manner.

A close reading of the work offers various interpretations, such as being an expression of the worship of the sacred Mount Fuji; its connection to Hokusai's difficult personal situation - the death of his wife, a stroke he suffered, and a grandson who got entangled in gambling and became an economic burden. Literature also offers a national political reading where the description serves as a metaphor for the uncertainty that shook Japan as it was forced to enter from a prolonged isolation toward opening its doors to the West and the severe economic crisis it experienced in the 1830s. Japan, accustomed to earthquakes and tsunami waves, and yet, Hokusai's "The Great Wave" is not related to the natural phenomenon of the tsunami. In this print, Hokusai refers to the wave more as a metaphor than as a natural phenomenon. Only artistic interpretation in later works identifies the Great Wave with the phenomenon of the tsunami.

Guided tours of the new exhibition
Fridays, January 3, January 10 | 10:30, 11:30, 12:30
Saturdays, January 4, January 11 | 10:30, 11:30, 12:30
Thursday, January 9 | 10:30, 11:30, 12:30
Friday, January 24 | 10:30, 12:00
Saturdays, January 18, January 25 | 11:00, 12:30