Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami (born February 1, 1962) is a Japanese contemporary artist. 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.

He 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 also used for Murakami’s own artistic style and that of other Japanese artists he has influenced.

Murakami is the founder and President of Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., through which he manages several younger artists. He was the founder and organizer of the biannual art fair Geisai.

In 2002, at the invitation of designer Marc Jacobs, Murakami began his long-lasting collaboration with the fashion brand Louis Vuitton. He began by contributing artwork which was used in the design of a series of handbags. The series re-envisioned the company’s monogram and was a huge commercial success. Though he had previously collaborated with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake Men by Naoki Takizawa, his work with Louis Vuitton made him widely known for blurring the line between ‘high art’ and commercialism. It also elevated him to celebrity status in his home country of Japan.

In 2007, Murakami provided the cover artwork for rapper Kanye West’s album Graduation and directed an animated music video for West’s song "Good Morning".

In both cases above, Murakami would later ‘re-appropriate’ these projects by incorporating their imagery into his paintings and sculptures, further blurring the boundaries between art and commercial branding and even questioning the existence of such a boundary.

Among his best known recurring motifs are smiling flowers, iconic characters, mushrooms, skulls, Buddhist iconography, and the sexual complexes of otaku culture.

In May 2008, My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), an anime-inspired sculpture of a masturbating boy whose semen stream forms a lasso, sold for $15.2 million at Sotheby's.

Current exhibitions:

A Collaboration with Nobuo Tsuji and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

October 18, 2017 – April 1, 2018