‘Hokusai and Ukiyo-e’ exhibit at Cleve Carney Museum of Art dives into Japan’s Edo period

In 2021, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn began a series of multifaceted, high-profile exhibitions every other summer centered on artists it hoped would be surefire draws — Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol.

This year’s installment, “Hokusai & Ukiyo-e: The Floating World,” which runs through Sept. 21, takes a different turn and is arguably a riskier venture because the lure is not a famous artist’s name or movement.

Instead, the show is centered on the extraordinary appeal of one work, “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” (also known as “Under the Wave off Kanagawa”) by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The title might not be immediately recognizable, but the imagery certainly is — massive waves with menacing, clawlike tips that seem poised to engulf and overwhelm three barely visible boats.

It is hard to know exactly why certain artworks, like the “Mona Lisa” or this one, achieve such massive fame. But this woodblock print, which measures just 14⅛ by 20 inches, is undoubtedly a striking and unforgettable scene, and it has been reproduced, parroted and reimagined countless times in countless forms.

It is the culminating image — occupying a wall all to itself — of this new exhibition that looks at the larger artistic and cultural milieu from which “The Great Wave” emerged: Ukiyo-e (Pictures of the Floating World).

The Japanese style flourished in the 17^th through 19^th centuries in Edo (now known as Tokyo), depicting a broad range of subject matter from kabuki actors and courtesans to panoramic landscapes and erotica.

This exhibition offers a smartly curated, high-quality overview of the era that includes hanging and horizontal scrolls but is dominated by multicolor woodblock prints, which were produced by the thousands and disseminated worldwide. (Fewer than 100 examples of “The Great Wave” have survived.)

In all, there are 53 works by 17 artists including three of the style’s most celebrated — Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). The latter is represented by 15 selections, including examples from his 1856-59 series, “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” like No. 99, “Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa,” a winter scene with a large, decorated lantern dominating the foreground.

“The Great Wave” (ca. 1830-32) is part of Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” (the mountain is faintly visible in the background). Six selections from the series, which feature some of his most striking compositions, are on view, including “Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa,” a straight-on view of an arched, wooden bridge.

Also featured are 17 supporting objects, including a 17^th-century shamisen, a traditional three-stringed instrument, and elaborate game sets related to Kuniyoshi’s “The Three Vassals (of Yorimitsu): Shumenosuke Sakata no Kintoki, Usui no Sadamitsu, Genij no Tsuna and Demons” (1861). Depicting a board game, this triptych boasts a swirling composition abounding with vibrant colors and surprising action.

The Ukiyo-e works, with their sometimes unusual pictorial formats, abstracted backgrounds, decorative motifs and variegated subject matter had a huge impact on the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and later artists. Two well-known prints by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and a 2019 work by Jacob Hashimoto on view in a nearby room demonstrate this ongoing influence.

The works in this show are on loan from the Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art in Genoa, Italy, which opened in 1905. Chiossone (1833-1898) moved to Japan to design and engrave that country’s first currency and stamps, and, during his 23-year-stay, he put together a world-class collection of Japanese and Chinese art that now numbers more than 15,000 objects.

Will this summer exhibition prove as popular as that past two installments that drew 102,000 and 33,000 people respectively? Justin Witte, Cleve Carney’s curator, believes the answer is yes, in part because he thinks this one will have more appeal to younger viewers.

“Because of the popularity of manga [comics or graphic novels], anime [Japanese animation] and Japanese culture, there’s a lot more youth interest in this work than even for Frida or Warhol, because the lineage is so clear. That’s why we have put so much emphasis on that aspect of the story as well,” Witte said.

A wonderfully fun, inventive ancillary exhibit is billed as a “3D manga world brought to life,” because the floor, walls and furniture are covered in black-and-white, comic-style renderings. It was designed by Vanessa Vu and Kevin Yu, who took a similar approach to 2d, their restaurant at 3155 N. Halsted St.

This room explains the influence of the Ukiyo-e artists, especially Hokusai, on contemporary manga and anime, which emerged in the 1940s-‘60s and maps the growing evolution and growing popularity of these art forms in subsequent decades.

It is one of nine complementary exhibitions and supplementary offerings across the McAninch Arts Center that set apart these biennial shows from more conventional presentations and are meant to appeal to visitors who might not be art-museum regulars.

Among the other extras are “Hokusai’s World,” an elaborate imagining of an Edo street scene and the artist’s studio built by the College of DuPage theater department and a children’s discovery room. There is even a pop-up café, Edo Eats!, complete with Japanese candy, green tea and shrimp tempura rolls.

“Our shows very much come from the fact that we are a community college and they’re education-focused,” Witte said. “They’re very much about showing the talents and skills of the college and community, so it’s a very different experience, for sure.”