Takashi Murakami (村上 隆) is a Japanese artist known for his works in both painting and digital media. The artist is from Itabashi, Japan, and was born on February 1, 1962. His art includes sculptures, paintings, and he also works as a film director.
His most notable works are My Lonesome CowBoy and Super Nova. The styles of his works are often Superflat (inspired by the world of anime), PopArt – The Videos, and pop art. Takashi Murakami often mixes traditional art with modern art.
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Educational Institutions
Japan is a good place to train artists of various styles, and it was no different with Takashi Murakami. Tokyo University of the Arts and Hongō Junior and Senior High School, Tokyo University of the Arts (東京藝術大学), also known as Geidai (芸大), is located in Ueno Park. It also has other campuses in Adachi and the cities of Toride and Yokohama.
Other well-known artists have graduated from this university besides Takashi Murakami, such as musicians Ryuichi Sakamoto and Masashi Hamauzu, and filmmakers Hiroshi Teshigahara and Takeshi Kitano, among many others.
Takashi Murakami graduated in Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting). Hongō Junior and Senior High School is a primary and secondary school, founded in 1923 in Tokyo.
History with Art
Takashi Murakami began his career in 1990 under the guidance of Japanese musician Masato Nakamura. In 1993, he became recognized both inside and outside Japan as Mr. DOB.
Takashi Murakami was the creator of the term Superflat, which refers to a postmodern artistic movement. The term refers to an artistic movement from the 1990s that critiques Japanese consumer culture. This style also applies to other artists influenced by him and is characterized by subjects relevant to the Japanese, such as culture, society, and more.
The artist has his exhibitions spread all over the world and in famous places for artists like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Palace of Versailles in France. Takashi Murakami’s arts include various types of artistic styles such as anime, painting, sculpture, industrial design, and fashion.
Time magazine in 2009 named Takashi Murakami the most influential artist to represent contemporary culture. In 2011, the company Google asked him to create the Google Doodle (temporary logo alteration) for the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. And in 2019, Takashi Murakami made the music video for singer Billie Eilish titled ”You Should See Me in a Crown”.
Main Works
The most important works of Takashi Murakami are the sculpture titled ”My Lonesome” and the painting ”Super Nova”. These are very distinct arts that represent different moments in the author’s life.
My Lonesome Cowboy is from 1998, the superflat style statue is 288 centimeters tall and depicts a figure inspired by anime. The statue symbolizes a naked male figure with spiky hair and a smiling face, ejaculating a large stream of semen that circles his body like a ribbon.
The period of this piece marked the phase of bodily fluids due to many sexualized images inspired by otaku culture. In fact, the sculpture is based on shunga (representation of exaggerated genitals) and hentai (pornography from anime and manga).
Takashi Murakami’s inspirations came from the films Andy Warhol from 1968, Lonesome Cowboys, and Loving You from 1957. The latter starred Elvis Presley, who sang the song “Lonesome Cowboy” in a pose that similarly emphasizes his thighs and pelvis.
In 2008, the fourth numbered edition of My Lonesome Cowboy was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for $15.1 million, almost four times the value it was appraised at. The sale made Murakami one of the most expensive living artists in the world that year.
On the other hand, the work Super Nova from 1999 is located at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This work contains 7 panels that highlight the quintessence of Takashi Murakami. He takes everyday things and generates them with kitschy cuteness, a very common style in Japanese culture.
The curiosity is that Takashi Murakami does not even touch his works; he comes in with creativity and hires technicians to execute them. In Super Nova, you can see a giant mushroom full of eyes among several smaller ones. The mushroom conveys the idea of being hallucinogenic, magical, atomic.
The inspiration for this Superflat art is a critique of the bombings in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, when large cities were literally devastated. The painting, therefore, refers to this turbulent history of Japan. That is why the monstrous mushrooms depicted are made human by radiation.
Current Works
Takashi Murakami’s most recent work is a collection of shirts and mousepads in partnership with FaZe Clan. They previously collaborated in June 2021 by launching two models of shirts and mousepads in various colors. The models are very much in the artist’s style focused on anime and manga. The latest partnership is for the 2021 Black Friday edition. For this collection, the shirts are in black and white, with a limited edition. The prices for the two items will range between $75-$100.
Another collaboration, also in early 2021, was with Perrier, natural sparkling mineral water, part of Minalba Brasil’s brand portfolio. The labels were printed on canvas with the artist’s original work and with his popular characters Kaikai and Kiki.
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