Murakami Takashi

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Murakami Takashi 村上隆



I open wide my eyes but I see no scenery.
I fix my gaze upon my heart .

(2007) at Gagosian Gallery, New York

© www.artnet.com


MURAKAMI AND THE MURPHYS
by Charlie Finch

Exhibition Gagosian, March 19 - 22, 2008

One city block, 77th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, separated two opening parties on May Day evening this week, twinning two very different conceptions of suffering.

Takashi Murakami opened his monumental portraits of Daruma, the sixth-century founder of Zen Buddhism, at Gagosian.

With prices starting these days at $110,000 for a tiny flower painting the size of your hand, Murakami also fulfills Fitzgerald’s dictums that the rich are made of money.

Daruma, however, allegedly meditated for nine years, until his limbs fell off, before he reached enlightenment. The Murphys, models for the tormented Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender Is the Night, suffered the loss of two young sons to illness, in quick succession, as well as periods of intense financial and psychological deprivation. Murakami’s Daruma portraits, a cut above the drivel he has produced previously, are bullish mounds of sweaty torment. The element of self-portraiture in them is unmistakable: surrounded by the cameras and tape recorders of the adoring Japanese press at Gagosian, the artist’s own massive skull turned ochre grey in a haze of smoke and furrowed commentary.

©　www.artnet.com/ artnet Worldwide Corporation


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Dubbed the "Warhol of Japan," Murakami has made name on both sides of the Pacific with his eclectic mix of graphic and fashion design, manga, and silk screen prints.

Tranquility of The Heart, Torment of The Flesh -
Open Wide The Eye of The Heart,
and Nothing is Invisible.




quote from: 　shakydog.blogspot.com

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Takashi Murakami (村上隆, Murakami Takashi, born 1 February 1962 in Tokyo) is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist who works in both fine arts media, such as painting, as well as digital and commercial media. He attempts to blur the boundaries between high and low art. He appropriates popular themes from mass media and pop culture, then turns them into thirty-foot sculptures, "Superflat" paintings, or marketable commercial goods such as figurines or phone caddies.



Murakami attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, initially studying more traditionalist Japanese art. He pursued a doctorate in Nihonga, a mixture of Western and Eastern styles dating back to the late 19th century. However, due to the mass popularity of anime and manga, Japanese styles of animation and comic graphic stories, Murakami became disillusioned with Nihonga, and became fixated on otaku culture, which he felt was more representative of modern day Japanese life.

This resulted in Superflat, the style that Murakami is credited with starting. It developed from Poku, (Pop + otaku). Murakami has written that he aims to represent Poku culture because he expects that animation and otaku might create a new culture. This new culture being a rejuvenation of the contemporary Japanese art scene. This is what it is all about to Murakami; he has expressed in several interviews in the last five or six years the frustration that his art has risen from. It is a frustration rooted in the lack of a reliable and sustainable art market in post-war Japan, and the general view of Japanese art in and outside the country as having a low art status.

He is quoted as saying that the market is nothing but "a shallow appropriation of Western trends". His first reaction was to make art in non-fine arts media, but decided instead to focus on the market sustainability of art and promote himself first overseas. This marks the birth of KaiKai Kiki, LLC.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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My arms and legs rot off
and though my blood rushes forth,
the tranquility of my heart
shall be prized above all.

source : www.artinfo.com


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MORE illustrations
. Takashi Murakami 　


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Exhibition by Takashi Murakami in the Château de Versailles
14 September to 12 December 2010

“For a Japanese like me, the Château de Versailles is one of the greatest symbols of Western history. It is the emblem of an ambition for elegance, sophistication and art that most of us can only dream of.
Of course, we are aware that the spark that set fire to the powder of the Revolution came directly from the centre of the building. ... "

source : en.chateauversailles.fr


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TakashiMurakami.com
is a tribute to Takashi Murakami (b. 1963), one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking Japanese artists of the 1990s.
His work ranges from cartoony paintings to quasi-minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons to performance events to factory-produced watches, T-shirts, and other products, many emblazoned with his signature character, Mr. DOB.
Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo in 1963 . . .


http://www.takashimurakami.com/


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November 11, 2011

quote
Ken Watanabe Opens Artists For Japan Charity Auction
Contemporary artist Takashi Murakami partnered with Christie’s Auction House yesterday to hold “Artists for Japan,” a specially-curated charity auction to benefit Japan earthquake and tsunami relief.
Terahata Yumi
Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe opened the “Artists for Japan” sale with a reading of a Japanese poem, selected especially for the occasion. Mr. Watanabe’s appearance came with the cooperation of the Japanese website and initiative Kizuna311, which was launched after the disasters to offer moral and emotional support to those affected.

. Japan after the BIG earthquake March 11 .


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"Superflat"
is used by Murakami to refer to various flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the "shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture."
A self-proclaimed art movement, it was a successful piece of niche marketing, a branded art phenomenon designed for Western audiences. Superflat has been embraced by American artists, who have created a hybrid called
“SoFlo Superflat”.



Artists whose work is regarded as “Superflat” include Chiho Aoshima, Mahomi Kunikata, Sayuri Michima, Yoshitomo Nara, Aya Takano and Takashi Murakami. In addition, some animators within anime and some manga artist have had their past and present work exhibited Superflat exhibitions, especially Koji Morimoto, and the work of Hitoshi Tomizawa, author of Alien 9 and Milk Closet. However, this does not necessarily describe them as "Superflat artists" and can be seen as a collaboration between two different entities.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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December 2015

Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats



The Mori Art Museum is holding a special solo exhibition of contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. It has been 14 years since Murakami’s last large-scale exhibition in Japan, though he has been continually internationally praised, working on giant installations at prestigious venues, such as France’s Palace of Versailles and New York’s Rockefeller Center.

Exhibition
Oct 31, 2015 till Mar 06, 2016
- source : japantimes.co.jp/events/2015 -

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October 18, 2017 – April 1, 2018

Murakami Takashi's work
at the MFA in Boston includes lots of Yokai images from the Museum's collection, presented as "influences" on Murakami's style.

Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics
A Collaboration with Nobuo Tsuji and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

. source : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston .


hell scene



asahina-in-a-tug-of-war-with-a-demon








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