Takashi Murakami

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Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami, September 17, 2006.
Birth name Takashi Murakami
Born February 1, 1963 (1963-02-01) (age 45)
Flag of Japan Tokyo, Japan
Nationality Japanese

Takashi Murakami (村上隆 Murakami Takashi?, born 1 February 1963 in Tokyo), is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist who works in both fine arts media, such as painting, as well as digital and commercial media. He attempts to blur the boundaries between high and low art. He appropriates popular themes from mass media and pop culture, then turns them into thirty-foot sculptures, "Superflat" paintings, or marketable commercial goods such as figurines or phone caddies.

Murakami attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, initially studying more traditionalist Japanese art. He pursued a doctorate in Nihonga, a mixture of Western and Eastern styles dating back to the late 19th century. However, due to the mass popularity of anime and manga, Japanese styles of animation and comic graphic stories, Murakami became disillusioned with Nihonga, and became fixated on otaku culture, which he felt was more representative of modern day Japanese life.

This resulted in Superflat, the style that Murakami is credited with starting. It developed from Poku, (Pop + otaku). Murakami has written that he aims to represent Poku culture because he expects that animation and otaku might create a new culture. This new culture being a rejuvenation of the contemporary Japanese art scene. This is what it is all about to Murakami; he has expressed in several interviews in the last five or six years the frustration that his art has risen from. It is a frustration rooted in the lack of a reliable and sustainable art market in post-war Japan, and the general view of Japanese art in and outside the country as having a low art status. He is quoted as saying that the market is nothing but "a shallow appropriation of Western trends". His first reaction was to make art in non-fine arts media, but decided instead to focus on the market sustainability of art and promote himself first overseas. This marks the birth of KaiKai Kiki, LLC.

In 2008, Takashi Murakami made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list, and was the only visual artist to do so. [1]


Contents

[edit] KaiKai Kiki LLC

In 1996, Murakami founded the "Hiropon factory," a studio with assistants to produce his work. With success, the Hiropon factory gradually grew into a fully professionalized art production studio and also an artist management organization. In 2001, Murakami registered his organization as Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. Today it employs over 100 people, with operations in both Long Island City, New York and Japan. Kaikai Kiki puts on an art fair twice a year, GEISAI.

Murakami formulates ideas and actively supervises the production of work, but he does not directly paint or sculpt the finished works. In addition to producing art works for exhibition in galleries and museums, KaiKai Kiki is responsible for the design of an enormous range of mass-produced products featuring Murakami's signature images: vinyl figurines, plush toys, keychains, t-shirts, posters, and more.

Kaikai Kiki also functions as an artist management organization and has seen remarkable success in creating a domestic and international market for new Japanese art. Many of Murakami's assistants are also artists who are exhibiting their work internationally.

Murakami and Kaikai Kiki have organized a biannual art fair in Tokyo, "GEISAI", which allows young artists to exhibit their work for a fee. Murakami said that GEISAI 10, held in September 2006, was a success in exposing young artists to the national and international art scene, but he regretted that Japanese Pop Art was completely ignored by the Japanese art establishment and by museums.[2] Scenes from the fair and an interview with Murakami were featured in Series 3, Episode 3 of the BBC series Japanorama.

[edit] Artwork

"Army of Mushrooms", Frank Cohen Collection, Manchester
"Army of Mushrooms", Frank Cohen Collection, Manchester

Murakami’s style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga. Superflat is an artistic style that comments on otaku lifestyle and subculture, as well as consumerism and sexual fetishism.

Like Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami takes low culture and repackages it, and sells it to the highest bidder in the “high-art” market. Unlike Warhol, Murakami also makes his repacked low culture available to all other markets in the form of paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key chains, mouse pads, plush dolls, cell phone caddies, and $5,000 limited-edition Louis Vuitton handbags. This is a comparable idea to Claes Oldenburg, who sold his own low art, high art pieces in his own store front in the 1960s, but what makes Murakami different is his methods of production, and his work is not in one store front, but many ranging from toy stores, candy aisles, comic book stores, and the French design powerhouse of Louis Vuitton. Murakami’s style is an amalgam of his Western predecessors, Warhol, Oldenberg and Roy Lichtenstein as well as his Japanese predecessors and contemporaries of anime and manga. He has successfully marketed himself to Western culture and to Japan in the form of Kaikai Kiki and GEISAI.

In response to interviewer Magdalene Perez’s question about the dangers of straddling the line between art and commercial products and mixing art with branding and merchandizing, Murakami said, “I don’t think of it as straddling. I think of it as changing the line. What I’ve been talking about for years is how in Japan, that line is less defined. Both by the culture and by the past-War economic situation. Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and in fact, they are surprised by the rigid and pretentious Western hierarchy of ‘high art.’ In the West, it certainly is dangerous to blend the two because people will throw all sorts of stones. But that’s okay—I’m ready with my hard hat.” [3]

Smooth Nightmare is an excellent example of a popular Murakami painting. The Superflat style is really obvious here. In this painting, there is one of Murakami’s reoccurring themes, the mushroom. The mushroom repetition is a good example of Murakami’s work’s connection with themes of the underground and alternative cultures.

Murakami’s work is quoted as being among some of the most desired work in the world by ArtNews in November 2003. Chicago collector, Stefan Edis reportedly paid a record $567,500 for Murakami’s 1996 Miss ko2 , a life-size fiberglass cartoon figure, at Christie's last May. Christie’s owner, Francois Pinault, reportedly paid around $1.5 million in June to acquire Tongarikun (2003), a 30-foot tall fiberglass sculpture, and four accompanying fiberglass mushroom figures, that were part of an installation at Rockefeller Center. In May 2008, My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), a sculpture of a masturbating boy twirling a semen lasso, sold for $15.2 million at a Sotheby's auction.

[edit] Books

[edit] Timeline[4]

  • 1996 The Hiropon Factory is founded in the Marunuma Art Residence at 493 Kamiuchimagi, Asaka-shi, Saitama.
  • 1998 The Hiropon Factory New York Studio is founded in Brooklyn, New York.
  • 1999
    • (April) Takashi Murakami’s solo exhibition “DOB in the Strange Forest” is held at the Parco Department Store Gallery in Shibuya.
    • (August) Takashi Murakami's solo exhibition at Bard College, organised by the graduating students of the Curatorial Studies programme, New York.
  • 2000
    • (February) Takashi Murakami exhibits together with Miltos Manetas at the Italian Gallery Pinksummer [1]. The exhibition is called "Murakami-Manetas" and it that occasion the two artists hold a conference at the Brera ArtSchool in Milan where Murakami introduces his ideas for the SuperFlat and Manetas his ideas for what became the Neen art movement.
    • (March) The Hiropon Factory website is launched.
    • (April) Takashi Murakami curates the “Superflat” exhibition at the Parco Department Store Gallery in Shibuya.
  • 2001
    • (January) Takashi Murakami curates the “Superflat” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; draws audience of 95,000.
    • (April) Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. is founded and capitalized at 3,000,000 yen; takes over operation of the Hiropon Factory.
    • (May) Studio #4, specializing in the production of sculpture and other three dimensional artworks, is established in Shiki-shi, Saitama.
    • (June) Studio #3 is established in the Marunuma Art Residence premises.
    • (July) An i-mode website "Geijutsu Dojo GP" is launched.
    • (August) Takashi Murakami solo exhibition "Summon Monsters? Open the Door? Heal? Or Die?" is unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.
    • (September) "Geijutsu Dojo Grand Prix," a Takashi Murakami solo exhibition related special event is held.
  • 2002
    • (March) "GEISAI #1" is held at the Tokyo Tower Amusement Hall; attracts 3,006 people.
    • (June) Takashi Murakami curates "Coloriage" exhibition at the Cartier Foundation in Paris; Takashi Murakami's solo exhibition "Kawaii Summer Vacation" is held at the Cartier Foundation in Paris.
    • (August) "GEISAI #2" is held at the Tokyo Big Sight West 4 Hall; attracts 5,332 people.
  • 2003
    • (March) "GEISAI #3" is held at the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall A; attracts 6,981 people.
    • (September) "GEISAI #4" is held at the Tokyo Big Sight West 4 Hall; attracts 5,332 people.
    • (December) "GEISAI Museum" is held at the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower on the 24th Floor; attracts 4,824 people.
  • 2004
    • (March) "Kaikai Kiki Animation Studio" is established at 4-1, Daikanyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. "GEISAI #5" is held at the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall A; attracts 7,798 people.
    • (September) "GEISAI #6" is held at the Tokyo Big Sight East 4 Hall; attracts 7,244 people.
    • (December) "Kaikai Kiki Animation Studio Homepage" is launched.
  • 2005
    • (March) "GEISAI #7" is held at the Tokyo Big Sight East 4 Hall; attracts 7,591 people.
    • (June) Takashi Murakami curates "Little Boy" exhibition at the Japan Society in New York.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Takashi Murakami Makes "Time"'s Most Influential People List, ARTINFO, May 1, 2008, <http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27499/takashi-murakami-makes-times-most-influential-people-list/>. Retrieved on 14 May 2008 
  2. ^ Walter Robinson: Murakami, Impresario, Artnet, 26 September 2006
  3. ^ Magdalene Perez (June 9, 2006), THE AI INTERVIEW: Takashi Murakami, ARTINFO, <http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/13359/tom-wesselmann-at-the-robert-miller-gallery/>. Retrieved on 24 April 2008 
  4. ^ Taken from the official KaiKai Kiki website

[edit] Bibliography

  • ArtNews. November 2003
  • Flash Art (International Edition) 39 82-4 JI/S 2006
  • Journal of Contemporary Art. February 2000
  • Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. Phaidon Press. 2002 ISBN 0-7148-4246-X
  • Wired Magazine. Issue 11.1. November 2003

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami"
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