THIS IS NOT MODERN ART

Ogata Korin (1658-1716)

Rinpa

Two panels of a (I presume? I think?) six panel screen (byōbu)

GOLD FOOL!

I once got to give a talk about Japanese screen painting. My hard-drive is still clogged to burst with enormous gold images.

Katsushika Hokusai

Self Portrait as an old man

1839

Louvre

“From the age of six I had a penchant for copying the form of things, and from about fifty, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of seventy, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At seventy-three years, I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reach eighty years I hope to have made increasing progress, and at ninety to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at one hundred years I will have acheived a divine state in my art, and at one hundred years I will have acheived a divine states in my art, and at one hundred and ten, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine prove not false.”

Katsushika Hokusai c.1835 as he made his fifth and last name change from ‘Iitsu, Formerly Hokusai,’ to ‘Manji, Old Man Mad About Painting’. In the end he died at eighty nine, missing his countdown by eleven years. On his death bed he sighed and said “If only I could have just another five years - then I could become a real artist.”