A new exhibition at the Tikotin Museum • The Wave Effect - from a Japanese icon to a global one

80 works by Israeli and Japanese artists inspired by the famous work "The Great Wave" by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

On December 31, 2024, a new exhibition called "The Wave Effect - From Japanese Icon to Global" will open at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa. The exhibition includes 80 works of art in a variety of mediums, by Japanese and Israeli artists, which correspond with the famous work "Under the Wave, Near Kanagawa" by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

"Under the Wave, Near Kanagawa" from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" (1833-1831) is a print that measures 26 x 39 cm, and is known by the popular name "The Great Wave". Despite its modest size, and although it is a print that was printed In a commercial quantity, which by modern standards is nothing unusual, reserve for him a place of honor in the list of international masterpieces, and without a doubt he is the work Mount Fuji is the focus of the entire series, despite the disruption of the relationship between the size of the wave and the size of the mountain. The original print that will be displayed in the exhibition is part of the Tikotin Museum collection.

The exhibition touches on the three elements that make up the "Great Wave" - ​​wave, boats, Mount Fuji - and these are represented here in 80 works by Japanese and Israeli artists and translated into the language of the period in which they were created. The element of the wave is examined through works in which it is a stylized force of nature, an ethereal boundary line and a metaphor for social isolation and a representation of existential anxiety, not necessarily anxiety related to natural disasters. The element of boats between the waves is associated with works of war in Japanese art and works dealing with personal and national assimilation in Israeli art.

In the exhibition Mount Fuji appears in traditional Japanese works that emphasize different perspectives on it, alongside other 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 and in a defiant and different way.

Among the prominent artists who will present at the exhibition:

• Oscar Oiwa (born in Brazil 1965) is the son of Japanese parents who immigrated to Brazil. For 11 years he lived in Japan and for the last 22 years he has been living and creating in the USA. His works are included in important collections around the world. The exhibition features two large-scale oil paintings - "Lifeboat" (2013 and "Big Wave" (2021).
• Keren Benvanishti (born in Israel 1977), a multidisciplinary artist who lives and creates in the USA. In her work, called "Coming Back is Always Saying Goodbye Again" (2008), she creates a large-scale painting inspired by Hokusai's work using her color prints. The work is presented courtesy of Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
• The Israeli photographer Gaston Zvi Itzkovits (born 1974) engages in his works within geographical, political and social boundaries. At the exhibition, Itzkovitz will present a large-scale photograph of a wave that serves as the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv.
• The French photographer Pierre-Eli de Pibrac (born 1983) photographs Mount Fuji through a window from a private room where a woman lies on a bed, her eyes closed and the peak of the mountain peeks out of the window. The exhibition will feature his work "Hakanai Sonzai" 4, which means "I feel myself a temporary creature" and is a wonderful testimony to the importance of the mountain in Japanese life.
• Roital Lasik (born 1962) is a painter and illustrator from Haifa. The exhibition combines two of her works in digital media, animation and illustrations on paper. Lasik created nine digital drawings under the title "The Incarnation" (2024) and they include a humorous look at a swimmer who transforms into a fish. Next to them is a short animation work "The Great Wave" (2024). The animation was born out of concern for her partner whose hobby is rowing a boat.

According to Dr. Etty Glas Gisis, curator of the Tikotin Museum:

The secret of the magic of the masterpiece "The Great Wave" is, among other things, the sense of uncertainty and threat that exists in it through the disruption of the relationship between Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, and the wave. This work was a source of inspiration and admiration from the moment of its creation and for nearly two hundred years. Beyond the artistic effect and the place of honor it received as part of the phenomenon of Japonism in European and American art, it is fascinating to meet its "translations" also in local Israeli art and contemporary Japanese art.
An individual reading of Hokusai's iconic work offers various interpretations, the most prominent of which - being an expression of the worship of the sacred Mount Fuji; Linking it to Hokusai's difficult personal situation or even a national political reading in which the description serves as a metaphor for the uncertainty that rocked Japan in the 30s.

On the walls of the museum's patio will be displayed two graffiti works by the Haifa artists EREZOO and ERCK (Erez Caspin), specially prepared for the exhibition. The two artists in the works "Full Circle" and "Human Nature" respectively, respond to the iconic work by combining local visual elements of Haifa.

At the exhibition, there will be an activity stand for the whole family - creating an animation book "The Incarnation of Gal". In addition, visitors are invited to create the image of the great wave by stamping their thumbprints on a wall that will be dedicated to this in the exhibition, all inspired by the work of Keren Binbanishti.

On the second floor of the museum, five small screens project an original animation created by a pair of SALT neuroscientists investigating the relationship between the various brain waves and works of art, in this case, all the images from works by Hokusai.

The names of all the artists participating in the exhibition:

Aviv Sharaga / Oskar Oiva / Eliav Yosef / Traditional art from the Tikotin collection / Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz /
Dor Chazot / Han Ishu / Chaya Rokin Berkman / Takesada Matsutani / Yakira Ament / Morjan Abu Diba /
Maria Sandler / Mati Elmaleh / Novia Yamaguchi / Noya Zur / Pierre-Eli de Pibrac / Katsushika Hokusai /
Salt Group / Keren Benvanishti / Revital Lasik / Shir Golan / Sharon Negusa / Erezoo / Erck

• The exhibition will close on May 31, 2025
• Museum address: Sderot Hanasi 89 Haifa

Days and hours of operation:

• Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday - 10:00-16:00
• Monday - closed
• Thursday – 10:00-18:00
• Friday - 10: 00-14: 00