Large-scale retrospective exhibition for internationally acclaimed artist Takashi Murakami, Oct. 29, 2007 – Feb. 11, 2008
Cultural News November 2007 Issue
Takashi Murakami: Tan Tan Bo, 2001, Acrylic on canvas mounted on board. Three panels: 360 x 540 x 6.7 cm overall. Collection of John A. Smith and Victoria Hughes, London
Takashi Murakami: I open wide my eyes but see no scenery. I fax my gaze upon my heart., 2007 Acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board. 242.6 x 281.9 cm. Collection of Linda and Harry Macklowe
Takashi Murakami: Oval Buddha, 2007, Aluminum and platinum leaf, 568 x 319 x 310 cm, Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles presents the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed artist Takashi Murakami. Born in Japan in the early 1960s, Murakami belongs to a generation of artists whose pictorial language brings together motifs linked to popular culture and the formal qualities of traditional Japanese art, such as flatness, pattern, and ornamentation.
© MURAKAMI – on view at The Geffen Contemporary, MOCA’s branch in Little Tokyo, Oct. 29 – Feb. 11 – features key selections that span Murakami’s entire career, including political works from the early 1990s, large-scale otaku-inspired figure projects of the late ‘90s, and the ongoing evolution of Murakami’s anime alter ego.
Murakami’s formal art training was in Nihonga (a painting style focused on traditional Japanese techniques and subject matter), and he earned a PhD from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1993. The artist currently lives and works in both Tokyo and Long Island City, New York.
Although the artist has consistently incorporated contemporary Japanese popular culture in the forms of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) into his work, he has also continued to draw on traditional sources ranging from Buddhist imagery, and 12th-century picture scrolls and Zen painting, and 18th-century Ed-period compositional techniques.
Organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and curated by MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel, © MURAKAMI will travel to the Brooklyn Museum, New York (Apr. 4 – Jul. 13, 2008); Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (September 2008 – January 2009); and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (February – May 2009) following its debut at Los Angeles.
As one of the most influential artists to emerge from postwar Japan, Murakami has created a vast body of work that has reached broad audiences - from art collectors to video-game obsessed teenagers.
Much like Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, Murakami’s practice is not only referential of pop culture, but his entire life is symbiotic with pop itself, creating a reciprocal relationship between high art and mass culture.
Drawing upon imagery and personalities found in his day-to-day life – in both the U.S. and Japan – Murakami envisions characters with both fantastical and spiritual iconographies, which he painstakingly brings to life in painting, film, installation, or sculptural form. He then returns these creations to the marketplace through the production of various merchandise – such as key chains, stickers, T-shirts, and Louis Vuitton bags.
© Murakami –is a large-scale retrospective includes key selections that span the early 1990s to the present. More than 90 works in various media -painting, sculpture, installation, and film - are installed in three sections, occupying over 20,000 square feet of exhibition space at The Geffen Contemporary at Museum of Contemporary Art.
The first portion is an immersive, theatrically lit environment, recreating the annual “Wonder Festival” comic market convention. It features many of Murakami’s acclaimed large-scale otaku-inspired figure projects of the late 1990s, including a new version of Second Mission Project Ko2 (2000-07).
The second section comprises a grid-like shelving display of all of Murakami’s merchandise, including multiples, collectibles, and maquettes, among other items.
The final section traces Murakami’s artistic development since 1991, including early works that engage branding and the evolution of his signature character, DOB.
Of particular importance are the premiere of a new animated film, kaikai & kiki, and the debut of Oval Buddha (2007), an 18 1/2 –foot tall, meticulously aluminum-and-steel sculpture with platinum leafing. Oval Buddha is a self-portrait in the guise of a Buddha.
Upstairs, and separate from the regular exhibition room is a 1,000 square foot, fully operational Louis Vuitton store within and as part of the exhibition. The store carries products specially created by Murakami and Louis Vuitton for the occasion, as part of the continuing collaboration initiated in 2000 by Marc Jacobs, Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton.
The Geffen Contemporary is located at 152 North Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90013, next to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Free admission on Thursday, 5 – 8 p.m. General admission is $8. www.moca.org.