The otaku colours of Murakami-san.

On now until May 6th, the Vancouver Art Gallery is hosting Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, the first exhibit of its kind on Canadian soil.i It just so happened that I was in the beautiful coastal city this week,ii and while I’d allotted 75 minutes to tour the very au courant and widely publicised show before heading to the airport, the fact that Uber hasn’t yet cracked the complacent taxi monopoly in the lower mainland meant that I ended up with just 15 minutes to run through the exhibit and snap these pictures. But that’s probably 15 minutes more than most!

So let’s take a look at the results of the darkroom :Murakami VAG - 8

For those who are blissfully unaware, very much the Damien Hirst of the Far East, Murakami is one of the very few living visual artists to successfully tap into the global “Hypebeast” culture, where memes, Supreme, Yeezy, and milky manga are king (and where profits for tastemakers flow like milk and honey).

Murakami VAG - 9

Kanye’s connection to Murakami isn’t just a one-off relationship of convenience either. Way back in 2007, at Yeezy’s request, Murakami designed the album cover art for Kanye’s third studio album, Graduation, which featured this adorable little brown teddy bear.

Murakami VAG - 10

For those keeping score at home, Kanye’s blessing not only helped solidify Herr Trump in 2016, but also launched Murakami into the stratosphere in 2008 when his sexual and dare I say optimistic sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy sold for $15 mn at the Sotheby’s spring auction, a price the artist has yet to best despite the rampant inflation fuelling the contemporary (and impressionist) art markets since then. Murakami is still an A-lister, but much of his commercially successful work since then has either been a result of various collaborations, such as the recent one with Virgil Abloh for Gagosian’s London Gallery,iii or of a darker and broodier mentality that simply hasn’t captured the imagination of patrons to quite the same degree as his earlier work. Speaking of his earlier work, Murakami is perhaps best known for his noughties happy flower motifs :

Murakami VAG - 5

Murakami VAG - 1

Of which there are infinite variations, each painstakingly painted acrylic on canvas. Even if this type of art isn’t your jam, credit has to be given to the detail and disciplineiv that runs through Murakami’s typically Japanese veins. Much like a Credor Tourbillon, it’s as exquisite as it is polarising, provoking as it is questionable. Though Murakami’s most vividly challenging work at VAG were easily his sculptures.

Murakami VAG - 2

Murakami VAG - 4 Murakami VAG - 3
Some of the art on display was more explicit and more obvious still, but also catering to the non-visual thinker in the process.

Murakami VAG - 6
That’s it! At the front is the end, and so our beginning ends almost as soon as it had begun’d, and we thusly conclude our blitzkreig of Murakami-san.

Murakami VAG - 7

Leaving only one question : which leg would an octopus eat first if an octopus ate its own leg ?

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  1. The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg was originally shown at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art where it broke attendance records. 
  2. A city, recall, where I’ve an eye on a little pied-a-terre once Bjarke cracks the champagne across the bow of his Vancouver House sometime in 2019.
  3. Gagosian is pretty much the haut de gamme in the private art gallery world. Saatchi and White Cube round out the top shelf. Don Thompson’s The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art is recommended reading if you’re interested in learning more about this uniquely perverse world. The book pretty much cured me of any deluded notion that I might become an art collector any time soon, at least from my humble and isolated abode in Alberta. High-end markets that are a lot less politically manipulated and isolated in very specific geographies are substantially more attractive to yours truly, whether it be fine furniture, fast cars, or haute horlogerie. A dancing bear here and there is more than enough of a dabble into fine art for now.
  4. Murakami was trained in the traditional Nihonga style of Japanese painting, which is extremely 2D and looks very much like paper cut-outs. It’s also the style that influence the likes of Matisse and Gauguin.

4 thoughts on “The otaku colours of Murakami-san.

  1. […] the artist, ever the subject of controversy, ever loved, ever despised, ever ahead of his time, ever the tastemaker, Kanye West has a new track for 2018 in the footsteps of his MAGA mania.i Let’s take a look […]

  2. […] for the blissfully uninitiated, is a slightly more shrouded and very much more British version of Murakami-san. […]

  3. […] gut tells me that these “Italians” are Sicilian mobsters making sport of this art-like niche (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but there are at least some accounts of these […]

  4. […] may or may not be surprised to learn that Virgil is yet another product of none other than King Tastemaker Ye. […]

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