The Great Wave

I've always loved this wood cut by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai entitled "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", and used it as the inspiration for the tattoo I got on my ankle for my 50th birthday.

Turns out it is one of the most recognized pieces of Japanese art in the world, and is featured in Episode 93 of a BBC radio series, "The History of the World in 100 Objects" that first aired in January of this year.  It will be rebroadcast beginning this month.  I hope to listen to some of it.

Art Cards

When I started sorting my postcards, I faced a categorization dilemma - should postcards of art be grouped in a country, particularly when the sender had visited the museum in which the art hung or should the art postcards have their own classification? I decided on the latter. I like that not only do postcards provide mini-geography lessons, they also give quick glimpses of art.

This postcard features a work by Rufino Tamayo, known as "the Picasso of Mexico". He is one of my favorites. There's actually a Tamayo Museum in Chapultapec Park in Mexico City. While I have visited that museum, I didn't send this postcard to myself. It came from a friend in high school who started collecting Tamayos long ago (and introduced me to the artist in the first place). I'm pretty sure he has at least one, if not two, Latin American art galleries in Los Angeles now.