The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a woodblock print created by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in late 1831, will be on public display at York Art Gallery from Friday (February 27) until August 30.
It will form a main focal point of the gallery’s new exhibition, Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, which showcases more than 300 years of printmaking.
The great wave is one of the most famous examples of printmaking, a process which creates artwork by transferring images onto another surface.
Just 111 original prints of the great wave exist, with only six thought to be in the UK, according to Eleanor Jackson, curator of fine art at York Art Gallery.
The image, depicting small boats below a huge wave, has become one of the most recognisable in the world. A print of the great wave sold in 2023 for a record $2.76 million (£2.26 million) in New York and the following year it appeared on the new 1,000 yen banknote in Japan.
Eleanor said it was “really special” to bring the great wave to York.
“It’s such an iconic image,” she said. “It’s one of the kinds of artwork that everyone knows and recognises, but very few people have seen an original.
“To bring that to York is really thrilling.”
The great wave print, on loan from Maidstone Museum in Kent, comes halfway through the exhibition which Eleanor said was a deliberate decision to inspire people to go further into the display.
“It’s fantastic to bring art of this quality to the people of York – to be able to bring exhibitions that are of the quality of a national gallery to a regional gallery,” she said, adding: “It’s so important to make art accessible.”
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The exhibition focuses on printmaking in the 18th and 19th centuries and ends with contemporary work from as recent as the 2020s.
There is also samurai armour on show which has been loaned from the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.
‘So important’ to have ‘internationally renowned’ art in York
Leon Dumont, from the York Creatives community group, said it was “brilliant for people based in York to be able to see this kind of work without having to travel”.
“I think it’s so important that we have internationally renowned works of art in York,” he said. “It’s really powerful for people in the creative industry to have access to this type of exhibition … It’s a real privilege for York.”
Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print runs from February 27 to August 30 at York Art Gallery. Admittance is included with general admission to the gallery. Visit the gallery’s website for tickets.