Abalone

Martin Sharp

In 1973, Sharp discovered a print which he believed was an unknown work by the Japanese Ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai. The print, now lost, depicted one of Japan’s legendary Ama abalone divers who, like her sisters, stick in hand, would hold her breath and dive up to 10 metres to prise the valuable molluscs from the rocks. The Ama were often depicted in erotic, 18th-century woodblock prints by Utamaro Kitagawa.

Working from a reproduction of the 'lost’ Ama print and assisted by his long-standing collaborator Tim Lewis, in this greatly magnified version Sharp has painstakingly recorded the delicate line work and brilliant modulations of colour which distinguish the prints of Hokusai, an artist has he long admired.

Hokusai’s most famous work, In the hollow of a wave off the coast at Kanagawa, from the series Thirtysix views of Mount Fuji, had been adopted in one of Sharp’s most recognisable images, The wave. This drawing featured RB Clark’s comic-strip character, the quintessential Australian simpleton Boofhead, about to be overwhelmed by the approaching wall of water. It was penned by Sharp for The Australian newspaper, in response to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s meeting with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1971, the first Australian political leader to visit China.