I went to this after I read the NY Times article. The place is very uppity. It was two floors and only had a handful of pieces. When you look up close, they’re not really painted. Maybe they are, I don’t really know. I mean, it could have been a combination of computer editting and airbrushing, I can’t tell. But it’s definitely not like Takashi Murakami used a paint brush because there are NO brush strokes.
When I read the article, I felt like I couldn’t really get a sense of seeing the works and being at the gallery so this entry is basically me trying to capture the whole thing for you.
See that security guard? I asked her if I could take pictures. She said yes, but she was all annoyed the entire time I was taking pictures and videos. Eh, whatever, that biotch.
There were only two floors. The elevator goes to the 6th floor and then you walk down to the 5th floor for all the colorful flower pieces.
Okay, this might be a little obscure but I found this picture on Flickr w/ Diana from Project Runway in front of one of the pieces. Project Runway, that’s a gay show. It’s great.
I know a young lady from Tokyo whose artwork is directed to bathrooms. She designs bathrooms, including the bathroom of the NY Aquarium. I suspect she might feel dismissive of the flower pieces, which I suspect were also designed as bathroom pieces. What can I tell you, I think this artist is purely derivative.
I thought about what you said and the first thought that popped into my head was, well, all art is a derivative of some other art, sorta, right? I don’t know. Anyway, whether he’s an original class act or he’s just doing what someone else has already done, he’s in and he’s “it” - na’sayin’?
Thanks for sharing these images from the Murakami exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery.
Murakami’s ubiquitous presence in Japan as a pop artist, one still highly regarded in the professional art community as well, still catches many of us off guard; it’s hard to appreciate the scope of his influence on — and reflection of — Japanese contemporary popular culture. It’s also, I think, hard for us to realize how he fits into ongoing artistic / aesthetic traditions in Japan and yet reflects aspects of earlier Japanese culture as well.
For instance, with respect to the Darurma images in the current exhibition, one is reminded both of the commonly encountered roly-poly figure with blank eyes often employed as a wish fulfillment icon — paint in one eye at the time you make your wish and the other when your dream is realized (with Daruma’s help, of course) and of a beautifully executed portrait of the same figure on display at Ryoaniji in Kyoto, the site of the universally famous Zen rock garden much admired around the world. Even in his choice of subject matter, then, Murakami appears to be juxtaposing the sacred and the mundane, the popular and the highbrow — and making himself rich in the process!