There is a
smashing new exhibit at the Asian Art Museum by the contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami called
Unfamiliar People: Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego.
I had never heard of the artist before this exhibition, which just demonstrates how off-trend I am, because the 62-year-old Murakami has become a global sensation in the the last few decades. (Pictured above is the 2019
Bacon: Scream, a riff on a famous Francis Bacon portrait of his lover George Dyer.)
He wanted to become an animator but at art school he gravitated towards traditional Japanese art, earning a PhD before rebelling against the insular field. (Pictured above is
727 which is a 1996 pop takeoff on a famous 12th century Japanese painting,
Illustrated Legends of Mt. Shigi.)
In 1994 he spent a year in New York City and learned a lot about the commercial art world which he put to good use on his return to Tokyo, eventually branching out into the worlds of fashion (Louis Vuitton and Issey Miyake), movies (the 2013
Jellyfish Eyes), music videos (with Pharell, Kanye West, Billie Eilish, and a
Kirsten Dunst cover of Turning Japanese), and every other conceivable global branding opportunity.
Murakami has an entire army of young artists and assistants in his three production factories in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York, which allows him to create work like the 82-foot-long painting
Judgement Day for this exhibit.
The size is astonishing...
...as is the detailing...
...and the occasional nod to erotica.
Like much Japanese pop art, the sensibility is a strange mixture of cute and weirdly disturbing...
...and after three years of a global pandemic, with much of the world going mad with fear and conspiracy theories...
...Murakami is presenting this exhibit as his response. (Pictured is the 2023
Unfamiliar People: Snow Crystals.)
The show is a kick and well worth seeing.(
Click here for a charming YouTube video made by the museum with Murakami wearing a series of goofy monster hats while explaining stuff.)
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