Takashi Murakami

Born: Tokyo, Japan 1962
Currently resides: Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan and Brooklyn, New York

Creditations: 1998, he joined the New Genre curriculum of the UCLA art department as guest professor.

Education: 1986, Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Traditional Japanese Painting

1988, Masters of Fine Arts from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

1993, PhD from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

 

Art: Takashi Murakami is completely a wonder in himself. He is the most memorable and thought-provoking Japanese artists of the 90's, he's considerd the Japanese equivalent of Andy Warhol and possibly of all time? His "all-too-cute" work is extremely unique but not limited in medium reflecting Japanese pop-culture of the East (eastern influences include Katsushika Hokusai) while always showing influence from the West (western influences include Warhol and Pollock!). Murakami has a range of audience as well, from the Japanese Animation heads, the sex obsessed Japanese youth culture, to the meaningless contemporary art critics and collectors, and Japanese media. He experiments with painting, sculptures, balloons, performance, and even factory produces accessories. Murakami is extremely sucessful as an artist in that he allows you explore the mind and the taboos of society.

Murakami's work focuses on the "history of Japan as a closed environment until the opening of its borders in the late nineteenth century, the reconstruction of Japan after World War II, and the internationalizationof American culture..."

What in the hell is "super flat"? "Superflat is a concept proposed Murakami, whose paintings deal with two dimensional spatiality rendered somewhere between traditional Japanese painting and modern anime. The phrase, though coined by Murakami for his art, has recently drawn attention from young scholars due to its connotations: 'devoid of perspective and devoid of hierarchy, all existing equally and simultaneously'."
BT Monthly Art Magazine, Japan, Issue 5, May 2000