With one of the most recognizable aesthetics in the arts, Takashi Murakami has consistently and successfully managed to turn his artistic style into a household brand.
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Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist, whose style is one of the most recognizable ones in the market. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. Throughout his career, Murakami has increasingly merged the boundaries between fine art and popular culture by branding his artwork and turning it into merchandise, particularly with the celebrated character Mr. Dob. His embrace of the commercial side of art reached a high point in 2003, when the artist began collaborating with Marc Jacobs in the redesign of the Louis Vuitton logo and handbags. Since then, his collaborations with fashion and pop culture icons has not ceased, having collaborated with artists such as Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Kid Cudi, and Drake as well as with brands such as Comme des Garçons, Supreme and even Google.
Murakami is best known for having coined the term "superflat", which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society, and is now used to refer to his own artistic style and other Japanese artists he has influenced.
One of his most recognizable symbols is the Murakami Flower. This murakamian icon has several variations, shapes and colours and has stuck onto pop culture. However, these works go beyond what they seem. In 2005, the artist revealed in a New York Times article that the smiling Flowers are a manifestation of the repressed emotions and collective trauma experienced by the Japanese Post-War Society. This capacity to shed light on society-wide traumatic events in such a joyful manner is what turned Takashi Murakami into one of the greatest artists of our time.
One of Murakami’s collaborations is the rare one with Doraemon, which started in 2002 and is still ongoing. In the most famous work by manga artist Fujiko F. Fujio, a cat named Doraemon pulls ‘secret gadgets’ out of a four-dimensional pocket on his belly to grant the wishes of a boy named Nobita (Noby). This timeless masterpiece has been developed into an anime series, movies, and merchandise, and today, just like Murakami’s works, it continues to encourage people all over the world to dream.
Cover image: Takashi Murakami, A Field of Flowers Seen from the Stairs of Heaven, 2018. Courtesy of Lucky Cat Gallery
Written by: Zara Colombo
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