The Great Wave of Hoku
April 20, 2026
Forever pursuing the temporal qualities of the natural world, Richard’s sculpture Hoku captures the enigmatic and powerful forces of the ocean. Carved from a block of Carrara white marble into a sleek, ribbon-like form, it evokes the contour and dichotomous nature of waves—a transient movement of energy with a force that can shape coastlines.
Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s famous Edo-period woodcut, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, commonly known as The Great Wave, Hoku explores not only the awe-inspiring phenomenon of the tides but also Hokusai’s singular ability to capture the sublime elegance and overwhelming power of the ocean. Hoku aims to explore these qualities in marble, embodying the agile, unpredictable aspects of water in motion— arresting in beauty, mystery, and scale.
Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), 1830-32, Courtesy of The Met
The breathtaking composition of this woodblock print, said to have inspired Debussy’s La Mer (The Sea) and Rilke’s Der Berg (The Mountain), ensures its reputation as an icon of art history. Hokusai cleverly played with perspective to make Japan’s grandest mountain appear as a small triangular mound within the hollow of the cresting wave.
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