Part 2D - Blog: The Great Wave
The Great Wave, by Katsushika Hokusai, is a woodblock print
created around 1830 and it currently hangs in the Library of Congress. It uses
many of the Japanese elements of art in the painting. It uses reverence for
nature in that it has small boats with people on them attempting to survive the
waves of the ocean which can occur naturally and can be an uncontrollable force
of nature. It focuses in to one giant wave and two boats which helps the viewer
to understand the situation so it has both simplicity and sensitivity to space
along with bold lines that give the wave much depth. It also uses striking
juxtapositions like where it has the two boats and several small waves and
areas of flattened space such as the sky that has no definition just color.
Good job answering the whole question with multiple observations and descriptions. That is what we are looking for in the blog entries, along with relating your personal observations and experiences to what you learn. Those are good examples for reverence for nature, the small boat being tossed around by the sea, and juxtaposition, the tumultuous, powerful wave against the calm, colorless sky. It is also stylized art, like much traditional Japanese art. Copies of the print hang in many museums worldwide. Nice job with this one.
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