Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami (born February 1, 1962, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese artist and entrepreneur widely recognized for his ability to adapt the aesthetics of Japanese traditional art to operate within the context of popular culture.

Murakami studied Japanese painting at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1993. After completing his studies, he increasingly displayed his works in solo and group exhibitions, making his European debut in 1995 in “TransCulture,” held at the 46th Venice Biennale. The following year Murakami’s paintings and sculptures were featured most notably at the second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia.

Trained in traditional Japanese art, Murakami saw similarities between the flat composition of Japanese painting and the simplified aesthetics of anime (Japanese animation) and manga (Japanese comics). His style, which emphasized two-dimensional forms and bold, striking imagery, gave birth to an artistic movement known as Superflat, which not only acknowledged but glorified the interaction between the commercial and art worlds. After curating an exhibition in 2002 at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris, Murakami collaborated in 2003 with Marc Jacobs, artistic director of the Louis Vuitton fashion house, to produce fashion accessories. He earned celebrity status in May 2003 when his Miss Ko2 (pronounced “ko ko”)—a life-size fibreglass sculpture of a large-breasted blonde waitress in a petite uniform—was auctioned in New York City for $567,500; the price set what was then a record for a work by a contemporary Japanese artist.

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By 2005 Murakami had been dubbed the Japanese Andy Warhol and had reached a new level of success in his career as artist, curator, product designer, theorist, and entrepreneur. At the Japan Society Gallery in New York City, he curated the exhibition “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture.” Featuring the work of young Japanese artists, the show examined the otaku (“geek”) movement propelling anime and manga—two industries at the heart of Japanese popular culture. Also in 2005 Murakami displayed his monumental sculpture Tongari-Kun—Mr. Pointy & the Four Guards in Tokyo’s fashionable Roppongi Hills development. This colourful, meticulously crafted work, modeled on a Buddha statue, was the fourth edition of a piece that had charmed many viewers outside Rockefeller Center, New York City, in 2003.

Murakami also proved himself a significant force in the promotion of Japanese art and artists. In 2001 he founded an art production company, Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., with offices in both Japan and Brooklyn, New York. Through the company Murakami helped many young artists gain international exposure—by mounting exhibits, by producing and selling merchandise, and by organizing a biannual art festival and convention in Tokyo. In 2007 ©MURAKAMI was mounted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and it subsequently traveled to a number of other major museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, in 2009. This retrospective exhibit of Murakami’s artistic activity included not only paintings, sculpture, film, and installation works but also Kaikai Kiki merchandise and fashion products for Louis Vuitton.

In the 2010s Murakami’s work demonstrated a shift from clean plasticized figures of smiling flowers and impish characters to chaotic compositions of skulls and beastly forms. The artist often attributed the change to the Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, but it may also have been a result of a yearslong dialogue that he fostered with Japanese art historian Nobuo Tsuji, whose work on artists from the Edo period had inspired Murakami at the beginning of his career. Murakami’s subjects from this period often evoke Japanese religion, folklore, and art history. Notable pieces included the multi-paneled painting 100 Arhats (2013)—in Buddhism, an arhat is one who has reached the state of enlightenment—and large-scale sculptures of demons, Embodiment of “A” and Embodiment of “Um” (both 2014).

In 2013 Murakami released his first feature film, Mememe no kurage (Jellyfish Eyes), in Japan. His work was frequently exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (both in 2017). Murakami also continued to collaborate with high-profile names. He notably did the cover illustration for Kanye West’s 2007 album, Graduation; made art with fashion designer Virgil Abloh (2018); animated and directed one of Billie Eilish’s videos for the song “You Should See Me in a Crown” (2019); and designed the album artwork for reggaeton musician J Balvin’s 2020 album, Colores.

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