Takashi Murakami

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (Tokyo, 1962).
"Flower#11245-Jungle camouflage, 2024.
Pigment print and silkscreen on paper. Copy 42/100.
Presents dry stamp of KaiKai Kiki Print.
The work is stored and delivered with the original KaiKai Kiki Gallery box.
Measurements: 50 x 50 cm.
Takashi Murakami's easily recognizable multicolored Flowers motif has become a fundamental symbol within the culture. In 1995, the Japanese artist designed the smiling flower, which has become an icon of contemporary art. The inspiration for this symbol came while Murakami was studying Nihonga at Tokyo University of the Arts. Murakami's flower motif represents the collective trauma and dark emotions that the Japanese continue to experience since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Murakami is one of the most influential artists of the Japanese post-war generation, Takashi Murakami trained at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he earned a graduate degree in Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting). In 1990 he was introduced to contemporary art by his partner and friend Masato Nakamura, and in 1993 he created his alter ego Mr. DOB. He then began to be recognized inside and outside Japan for his particular synthesis between traditional Japanese art, the contemporary currents of his country (anime, manga...) and American culture, mainly the pop current. In his work, Murakami conveys a critical vision of current Japanese society, the legacy of the country's cultural tradition, its evolution after World War II and its relationship with the Western world, especially with the United States. In his writings he coined the term "Superflat" to define his personal artistic style, a term that fits a work characterized by two-dimensionality and that also criticizes the very structure of art, blurring the boundaries between high and low culture. In fact, his production encompasses multiple art forms, from painting and sculpture to industrial design, anime, fashion and other popular culture media and merchandising objects. His trilogy of exhibitions "Superflat" (2000, 2002 and 2005) has been shown in important art centers around the world, such as the Parco Gallery in Tokyo, the MOCA in Los Angeles, the Fondation Cartier in Paris or the Serpentine Gallery in London. Also, between 2008 and 2009, retrospective exhibitions were held at MOCA, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum für Moderne Kunst.