NEW YORK, NY.- Two newly discovered paintings by Katsushika Hokusai, creator of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and dozens of other rare and exceptional works of art will be exhibited in JADA 2011: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association. The exhibition will run from March 19 – March 23, 2011 at the Ukrainian Institute of America.

JADA 2011 is the association’s third joint Asia Week exhibition and presents the traditional fine arts of Japan.

“Asia Week in New York is a rich, long-standing tradition that dates back to the early 1990s and inspired a similar event in London,” said Leighton R. Longhi, president of JADA. “This year, around 50 galleries will be holding Asia Week exhibitions, not to mention museum exhibitions, auctions, and lectures and talks. We are delighted that so many galleries that handle Asian art are now working collaboratively, as JADA has done since its founding in 2002, and it is rewarding to note that there will be over 15 exhibitions of Japanese art throughout New York during Asia Week 2011, as well as several auctions and other events. We look forward to welcoming lovers of Japanese art from around the world to Asia Week New York.”

Highlights of JADA 2011 include two recently discovered paintings by Hokusai, who has been celebrated in the West as one of Japan’s foremost artists since his discovery by French artists in the 1860s. Quickly achieving an almost cult-like status in Europe, American scholars and collectors such as Ernest Fenollosa, Charles Langdon Freer, and William Sturgis Bigelow were also smitten and built up large collections of his paintings and drawings, which currently reside in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Monographs on the artist have been published since the 19th century, and in recent years numerous exhibits in Japan, Europe and the United States have been devoted to his work. The appearance in the marketplace of two previously unknown paintings marks a significant event.

Young Beauty Holding her Kitten (ca. 1805) presents a young geisha in the bold, angular brush-strokes, thick opaque pigments, and muted color scheme, that is the hallmark of Hokusai’s ukiyo-e style in this period—the silk is lined with blue paper, a technique the artist employed to create the illusion of an interior space at twilight. As the young woman holds the kitten tenderly to her breast, the pet struggles vainly to free itself from her grasp. The painting is signed Gakyōrōjin Hokusai ga (“painted by Hokusai, the old man mad about painting”) and is sealed Kimo dasoku