Takashi Murakami is unmistakably the Godfather of Japan’s contemporary art scene. Murakami’s Superflat direction lead the way for a new era in post-modern art in Japan and he is now widely regarded one of the most powerful art figures in the World – listed 14th in Art Review’s Power 100 in 2011.
Maurakami parallels his Suplerflat style to the flattening of Japan’s social culture, creating a fusion of high and low art – art available to the masses with little distinction between the two. Having worked with Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami’s neo-pop art style has become infamous with the legacy that Warhol left behind.
Takashi Murakami Art
Acknowledged as one of the most hard working artists in the World, Takashi Murakami’s efforts are forever pushing the boundaries of Contemporary Japanese art. Its not hard to see why Murakami’s works have mass appeal – stunning and intricately painted, Takashi Murakami’s art provides a plethora of visual treats. Young boys and girls in Japan decorate their schoolbags and bedrooms with Murakami’s toys. Key-rings and plush toys carry the Kawaii appeal – daintily cute and innocent, they are available for pocket money at character shops across Tokyo. Nowadays you cannot venture too far without seeing aspiring fashionable females carrying one of Murakami’s most iconic works right beside them. Murakami’s design of the Louis Vuitton handbag created a modern design icon – the most successful ever collaboration between an artist and a fashion designer.
Takashi Murakami’s art works hold an even greater appeal. They symbolise an new era of Japan. A Japanese culture that held little identity after the second World War has been reinvented in a kaleidoscope of colourful flowers, masturbating cowboys and oversized golden Buddhas. Japan has embraced Takashi Murakami’s vision and it now has a new ambassador in the art world.
Takashi Murakami’s exhibitions have mesmerised audiences from all around the World. 2010 took Murakami to Europe producing two stunning shows in Italy and France. Murakami’s exhibition held in the Palace of Versailles represented his first major retrospective in France. 15 rooms filled with Takashi Murakami’s often controversial but gloriously beautiful collection of oversized sculptures, contrasting vividly with the Palace’s treasures to produced a spectacle which received worldwide critical acclaim. Takashi Murakami’s 2011 solo exhibition in London’s Gargosian Gallery provided an explosion of sexual energy and erroticism in true Murakami style. Dazzling audiences with life-size manga sculptures, an oversized golden penis sitting beside cute character cut-outs and surrounded by a vast collection of beautiful prints, Murakami is far from predicable.
Takashi Murakami prints are printed on vivid lithograph paper – marvelously colourful and unassumingly large in size. Murakami’s prints provide a window into the spectacular mind of an artist who will go down in history as one of the most foreword thinking and innovative to have graced the contemporary art world.
Takashi Murakami Prints