Wearing a doll headband with two ears, a huge "Mr. DOB" doll suit and a pair of socks printed with the patterns of his own classic works. This is the 56-year-old Japanese artist Murakami Takashi . You may have heard of his name a long time ago, after all, his iconic work, Sunflower, has appeared in too many places.
On the afternoon of November 9, Takashi Murakami appeared in the exhibition hall of the Shanghai Beihaodeng Gallery. He was about to start a solo exhibition "Takashi Murakami in Fantasy Wonderland" that had been arranged long ago.
From veneer painting to large-scale acrylic painting of Murakami's iconic sunflower framed with aluminum frames, to a nearly 2-meter-high platinum sculpture. According to Behden Gallery, this is one of the largest gallery exhibitions Murakami has held in Asia and is also the artist's personal debut in mainland China.
This also once again named the fake exhibition event of " Kusama Yayoi and Takashi Murakami" that was widely circulated not long ago.
Like many other artists, art circles’ knowledge of Takashi Murakami started with his works of art, but for others, the co-branded clothing of Uniqlo and Doraemon launched not long ago, the once popular LV color printed version of Monogram series bags, and the graffiti limited edition T-shirts released by OFF-WHITE at the beginning of this year are the closest intersections between them and Takashi Murakami - the sunflowers, color patterns and the graffiti of "Mr. DOB" in these designs are all the iconic patterns of Takashi Murakami.
Compared with many artists who also launched co-branded models with fashion brands, Takashi Murakami should be considered relatively productive. He graduated from the Tokyo University of Arts and Music in 1993 with his first doctorate in Japanese painting . In the following years, he began to explore contemporary visual styles and tried to use his works to describe the impact of Japanese post-war aesthetic culture and consumerism and sexual fetishism on Japanese society. It was also during this period that he created the most well-known artistic image in his works, the Sunflower. Murakami Takashi didn't like these flowers that looked a little childish with simple smiles and candy-colored candy.
"The shape and taste of the flowers make me feel uncomfortable." Takashi Murakami once said so. But in the end, Murakami Takashi, who accepted the flowers, not only regarded it as one of the iconic patterns of his works, but also taught students how to depict flowers many times.
In 2001, Takashi Murakami established his own art production and artist agency "KaiKai KiKi (Qi Weird)", which allowed him to contact more artists in other fields, and laid the foundation for him to launch co-branded clothing and other fashion items with designers and musicians such as Virgil Abloh, Kanye West, Drake and other designers and musicians.
But at the same time, Takashi Murakami is also very controversial.
Take another image in his work "Mr. DOB" as an example. This cartoon image with Mickey Mouse has a shark-like teeth and mechanical eyes. In most cases, it looks both cute and weird. This cartoonish work was once regarded as superficial and without depth by many people. In addition, Takashi Murakami himself is keen on commercializing art works, which makes him despised by the always noble art world. Even when he held an exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in France, he was boycotted by the French people.
But this does not affect Murakami's contribution to the art world and its attractiveness to young people. From 2015 to the present, he has held seven art galleries around the world, including Tokyo Mori Art Museum, Yokohama Art Museum, Boston Art Museum and Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2019, the exhibition will also be held with the Hong Kong Pavilion and the Brazilian Sao Paulo Otake Tomoe Art Museum.
The exhibition in Shanghai officially opened on November 10, 2018 and will last until January 5, 2019.
At that time, Takashi Murakami was busy signing the memory surroundings in the hands of fans. The thick doll suit made him look a little bulky, but it also made him look as cute as the sunflower on the wall.
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