ART OF THE MATTER
Takashi Murakami challenges Western norms with a uniquely Japanese perspective in his latest exhibition in Kyoto.
Reinventing culture is what contemporary artist Takashi Murakami aims to accomplish through his creations. Famous for coining the term “Superflat” that kick-started the postmodern art movement, the Japanese artist’s career has developed primarily abroad. So it is significant that Murakami is now holding his first large-scale museum solo exhibition in Japan in eight years, and his first outside of Tokyo. The “Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto” exhibition is currently on display at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, in conjunction with its 90th anniversary.
Having once served as a thriving hub for painters during the Edo period (1603–1868), the city of Kyoto represents more than just a physical venue for the artist. With its legacy and tradition of arts and festivals, it deeply influenced the young Murakami in the early days of his career.
Through this dynamic showcase, Murakami unveils his interpretation of a new and exciting Murakami World. Featuring about 170 works, this colossal exhibition is divided into multiple sections and comprises predominantly new creations in the form of newly painted masterpieces and representative series—some which are being revealed for the first time.
This includes White Tiger Kyoto, Blue Dragon Kyoto, Vermillion Bird Kyoto and Black Tortoise Kyoto, a recent series of works based on the theme of the four deities that symbolise the four cardinal directions.
Through Japanese pictorial expression, Murakami’s striking designs aptly illustrate the Superflat ideology. Like the Pop Art movement which drew heavily from popular culture, Superflat is based on centuries’ worth of Japanese “flat” art aesthetics while influenced by the country’s postWorld War II anime and manga craze.
A culmination of Murakami’s sculptural practice of the Superflat concept also came to life in the form of an enormous golden sculpture named Flower Parent and Child, a collaborative installation by Murakami and Louis Vuitton—a House which has fostered close ties to the art world since its founding in 1954.
Situated in the Japanese garden of the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art for the exhibition since March 2024 , the giant sculpture was a symbol of hope and recovery when it was first unveiled in 2020 in Tokyo during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now perched atop a distinctive Louis Vuitton trunk that appears to float on the pond, the dazzling 13m-tall sculpture reveals different facets when seen from the front, the rear and the sides. Meanwhile, the trunk’s design is inspired by the Monogram Multicolour trunk which was first created by Murakami with Louis Vuitton in 2003.
There’s plenty on display for exhibition-goers to get acquainted with the prolific artistʼs trademark aesthetic and familiar figures. While this is the first time many of Murakami’s works have been exhibited in Japan, it seems unlikely to be his last.
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The “Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto” exhibition at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Higashiyama Cube, runs from now until 1 September 2024.