''A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)'' is a color photograph made by

Jeff Wall Jeffrey Wall, Order of Canada, OC, Royal Society of Canada, RSA (born September 29, 1946) is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he helped define the Van ...

in 1993. The large photograph is a rework version of the woodcut ''Yejiri Station, Province of Suruga'' (''c.'' 1832) by Japanese artist

Katsushika Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print ''The Great W ...

. The picture is displayed in a light box and it has the dimensions of 250 by 397 cm. It belongs to the collection of the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Analysis

Wall worked in this photograph during five months. It involved four actors and it was shot in a landscape near

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, when the appropriate weather conditions where in effect. He modified and collaged elements of the picture digitally for the final result. From the left, the characters express different reactions to the gust of wind. The female character of the left is still, in a state of shock, while her head is concealed by her scarf, blown by the wind, which dispersed her sheet of papers into the center of the picture. Two men hold their hats in their heads, facing the strength of the wind, while a third man, in between them, looks to the sky as his trilby flies away. Two thin trees in the foreground bend and release some leaves. The landscape appears to be suburban and presents brown fields and a canal, with small shacks, a row of telegraph poles, concrete pillars and other signs that evoke industrial farming.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993 in art 1990s photographs Photographs by Jeff Wall Photographs in the Tate galleries