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Things to know about the Great Wave

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Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#31

Post by kragen »

perihelions wrote: post #30

- "Japanese woodblock prints are particularly affected by exposure to light that can fade their colors and damage the paper they’re printed on. “It’s always a balancing act between wanting to show works like The Great Wave so that our visitors have a chance to experience them and preserving these works for the future,” Katz says. “We work closely with our conservators to set the parameters for the display of works on…

they can be, especially textile dyes, but in this case i think it's more the paper and binders that are damaged. prussian blue is quite light-stable despite containing iron ions, and there are plenty of black and white pigments that are light-stable over even geological time

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#32

Post by seszett »

zwayhowder wrote: post #27
teo_zero wrote: post #20

> If not the most famous artwork in the world Wait, what?? Am I the only one who thinks this sentence is off by an order of magnitude? I'd bet that the Great Wave is not even one of the 10 most famous. Unfortunately I have no evidence to support my statement...

One thing that I fully internalised only recently - despite learning Asian languages for literally decades. The things western people take for granted as ubiquitous in our culture are often unknown to Asian cultures. As an example recently talking to a Japanese friend who is the same age as me we realised she had seen less than 10% of the movies that "everyone born in the early 80's has seen". She didn't know who OJ…

> She didn't know who OJ Simpson was, nor is she familiar with Henry VIII and his 6 wives. She knew the Backstreet Boys & One Direction, but not Take That nor East 17.

Well, I'm French and it's the same for me. I think what Americans (and the British? I know Henry VIII is a king if England, even if I have no idea how many wives he could have had) greatly overestimate how shared their culture is in the western world.

Though living in Belgium I've noticed the Flemish are much more aware of such American things than we are, so maybe it's just the French who aren't well integrated into the "global western" culture.

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#33

Post by bdowling »

AnonHP wrote: post #9
kaycebasques wrote: post #2

Wow! Never thought about it like this before: > Because Japanese text is read from right to left, the earliest viewers of The Great Wave would have likely read the print that way too, first encountering the boaters and then meeting the great claw of water about to swallow them. So instead of riding along with the gargantuan wave as you might in a left-to-right reading, they would face right into the massive wall of o…

Historical Japanese text, written vertically, is read top to bottom and right to left (like in those prints). On the other hand, more modern text (including what’s more common now) is read left to right when written horizontally. There are some more variations on directionality. Nevertheless, the picture does look and convey a different impression when flipped.

It’s rare in modern times, but sometimes you may encounter a sign board written horizontally right-to-left, as in this sign above the front entrance to the Nippon Budōkan:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nippon_Budokan_-_2...

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#35

Post by radpanda »

perihelions wrote: post #30

- "Japanese woodblock prints are particularly affected by exposure to light that can fade their colors and damage the paper they’re printed on. “It’s always a balancing act between wanting to show works like The Great Wave so that our visitors have a chance to experience them and preserving these works for the future,” Katz says. “We work closely with our conservators to set the parameters for the display of works on…

I’d imagine somewhere there’s an engineer-artist putting such a print in a brightly lit locked box, which is programmed not to open until the interior light has shined long enough to eradicate the image on the print. (No idea if we have circuitry and LEDs that last long enough to make such a thing feasible).

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#36

Post by somishere »

I remember reading that many of the prints attributed to Hokusai are likely imitations of what was a fairly well known style at the time. Not sure how much truth there is to it? Can't find anything saying as much in a quick google.

As an aside, I have a large print of the great wave by my front door. It's such a powerful image. I was also surprised how easy it is to find quality, quite old woodblock prints in Japan at very reasonable prices (tho not by masters!).

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#37

Post by layer8 »

perihelions wrote: post #30

- "Japanese woodblock prints are particularly affected by exposure to light that can fade their colors and damage the paper they’re printed on. “It’s always a balancing act between wanting to show works like The Great Wave so that our visitors have a chance to experience them and preserving these works for the future,” Katz says. “We work closely with our conservators to set the parameters for the display of works on…

That’s how food works.

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#38

Post by shepherdjerred »

litenboll wrote: post #24
kaycebasques wrote: post #2

Wow! Never thought about it like this before: > Because Japanese text is read from right to left, the earliest viewers of The Great Wave would have likely read the print that way too, first encountering the boaters and then meeting the great claw of water about to swallow them. So instead of riding along with the gargantuan wave as you might in a left-to-right reading, they would face right into the massive wall of o…

I feel really dumb, but I have never even noticed the boats. In the reversed I see them very clearly, but in the original the wave is completely dominating the view (now I see the boats of course, but my focus is completely on the wave by default).

Me too! I'd only ever noticed the waves

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#39

Post by tptacek »

teo_zero wrote: post #20

> If not the most famous artwork in the world Wait, what?? Am I the only one who thinks this sentence is off by an order of magnitude? I'd bet that the Great Wave is not even one of the 10 most famous. Unfortunately I have no evidence to support my statement...

Well, both the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago disagree with you on that. One thing that'll throw you off, mentioned in the article: the Wave isn't a painting, and if you look for artwork rankings (it's the Internet, of course these exist) they tend to rank paintings.

The Waves at the Art Institute aren't their most iconic, popular pieces; that honor probably goes to Seurat's Sunday Afternoon.

I should get back over there soon. It's been forever.

Re: Things to know about the Great Wave

#40

Post by KPGv2 »

cubefox wrote: post #12
anigbrowl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true of documents, text messages, social media etc., but most books, magazines and other printed matter are still done vertically and R-L.

Wow, I didn't know that! I thought vertical text was a thing of the past. Interesting.

I own a bunch of novels in Japanese, and every single one is vertically-written. Same with all the comic books I own. I think maybe a couple children's manga I had years ago were horizontally-written, but we're talking something I haven't laid eyes on in decades, so I might be mis-remembering.
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