The Colourful Takashi Murakami 

“My own personal position is drawn from how well I can arrange the unique flowers of Asia, moreover the ever-strange blossoms that have bloomed in the madness of the defeated culture of post-war Japan, into work that will live within the confines of Western art history.”
—Takashi Murakami

This week I’m going to be combining two personal interests of mine: Japan and of course, skull art. Whilst researching for this post, I came across Takashi Murakami, an incredibly popular Japanese artist who created the “Superflat” movement which was heavily inspired by anime and manga directors, one such director was Neon Genesis: Evangelion’s own Hideaki Anno. This says enough about the ideals of the “Superflat” movement and its antithesis of the otaku subculture in Japan.

This peaked my interest in Murakami’s work, which has also been compared to Andy Warhol and other artists within the realm of pop art. Naturally, as a fan of different forms of anime and pop art itself, I quickly found myself intrigued with his art.

Skulls MCRST 1962, is an example of the different type of art that I found that I really enjoyed. You can clearly identify the cartoonish style and the bright colours provide such an interesting perspective. Compared to the darker colours of traditional gothic skulls but he doesn’t only draw these.

This is The Lion of the Kingdom that Transcends Death which showcases the more diverse range of Murakami’s talents. This work is stapled with imagery that’s symbolic of Asian culture and yet pays complete homage to contemporary art trends which includes the pop art themes of Andy Warhol.

Looking into this work, I see a mixture of styles that make this incomprehensible as a logical piece, but it makes so much sense as a tribute to fantastical and mythological elements. This isn’t only due to the Chinese Lion but also due to the eclipse in the background and the overall background which aside from the skulls and fountains, remains empty.

           

This is TIME or as it’s also known: BOKAN. This, and its pastel counterpart have been displayed as light shows in other exhibitions. Together, these two combine a total theme of peace and war, which personally, I find incredibly fascinating.

This is TIME or as it’s also known: BOKAN. This, and its pastel counterpart have been displayed as light shows in other exhibitions. Together, these two combine a total theme of peace and war, which personally, I find incredibly fascinating.

Next up, we have Blue Flowers & Skulls with which the only word that I can think to describe it as: trippy. Honestly, this work freaks me out a little bit as it gets more terrifying as you look at it. It’s like the polar opposite of generic pop art and it truly symbolises his satirical views on the Otaku subculture.

            These are only a few works that I decided to showcase of Takashi Murakami’s, but I would recommend looking up more of his work. As well as that, he’s even directed his own movie: Jellyfish Eyes.