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Takashi Murakami
Photo: Sodacan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons21

Takashi Murakami

Japanese artist (born 1962)

Takashi Murakami (村上 隆, Murakami Takashi; born February 1, 1962) is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts (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.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Takashi Murakami (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Feb 1, 1962.1

About

His work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture. He has designed covers for several hip hop albums, namely Kanye West's Graduation (2007), Future's eponymous fifth studio album (2017), West and Kid Cudi's Kids See Ghosts (2018), and Juice Wrld's posthumous The Party Never Ends (2024).

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

From Wikipedia’s article on Takashi Murakami, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedTokyo University of the Arts3
  • Date not recordedHongō Junior and Senior High School3

Academic background and early career

Murakami was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. From early on, he was a fan of anime and manga (Japanese animation and comics respectively), and hoped to work in the animation industry. He attended Tokyo University of the Arts to acquire the drafting skills necessary to become an animator, but eventually majored in Nihonga, the 'traditional' style of Japanese painting that incorporates traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and subjects. He earned his master's degree in 1988. Though he would go on to earn a Ph.D. in Nihonga (1993), he gradually became disillusioned with its insular, highly political world and started to explore more contemporary artistic styles, media, and strategies.

Murakami was dissatisfied with the state of contemporary art in Japan, believing it to be "a deep appropriation of Western trends." Thus, much of his early work was done in the spirit of social criticism and satire. On an article naming and explaining all of Murakami's pieces lies the infamous My Lonesome Cowboy, a companion to his earlier Hiropon. The sculpture is that of a naked anime character with blond spiky hair with a spiral trail of semen circling him. This piece is Murakami's most expensive piece to date selling for $15,100,000 at Sotheby's New York auction in 2008. Efforts from this period include performance art (Osaka Mixer Project, 1992), parodies of the "message" art popular in Japan in the early '90s, (Dobozite Dobozite Oshamanbe, 1993), and conceptual works (e.g. Randoseru Project, 1991). He also began developing his own pop icon, "Mr. DOB", which would later develop into a form of self-portraiture, the first of several endlessly morphing and recurring motifs seen throughout his work. Though he garnered attention, many of his early pieces were not initially well received in Japan.

From Wikipedia’s article on Takashi Murakami (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: visual artist, installation artist, painter, film director, sculptor.7

  • Date not recordedWorked at University of California, Los Angeles4
  • Date not recordedFounded Superflat5
  • Date not recordedFounded Kaikai Kiki6

Known for: Hiropon, Super Nova, My Lonesome CowBoy.8

New York

In 1994, Murakami received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council and participated in the PS1 International Studio Program in New York City for a year. During his stay, he was exposed to and highly inspired by Western contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer and especially the simulationism of artists such as Jeff Koons. He established a small studio, which, together with the Hiropon Factory in Japan, became the precursor to his company Kaikai Kiki. After returning to Japan, he would develop the core concepts behind his artistic practice and begin exhibiting regularly at major galleries and institutions across Europe and America.

Superflat

In 2000, Murakami published his "Superflat" theory in the catalogue for a group exhibition of the same name that he curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The theory posits that there is a legacy of flat, 2-dimensional imagery from Japanese art history in manga and anime. This style differentiates itself from the western approach in its emphasis on surface and use of flat planes of color. Superflat also served as a commentary on postwar Japanese society in which, Murakami argues, differences in social class and popular taste have 'flattened,' producing a culture with little distinction between 'high' and 'low'. The theory provided the context for his work and he elaborated on it with the exhibitions "Coloriage" (2002, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris) and "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" (2005, Japan Society, New York), which was named after Little Boy. These helped introduce Japan's lesser-known creative culture overseas and such curatorial projects would become an integral part of Murakami's multifaceted artistic practice. In the past decade, Murakami's curatorship expanded to include Kazunori Hamana, Yuji Uedaa, and Otani Workshop at Blum & Poe, New York (2016) and Juxtapox x Superflat at Vancouver Art Gallery (2016).

In accordance with the Superflat concept, Murakami's practice involves repackaging elements usually considered "low" or subcultural and presenting them in the "high-art" market. He then further flattens the playing field by repackaging his "high-art" works as merchandise, such as plush toys and T-shirts, making them available at more affordable prices.

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Factory

In 1996, Murakami launched the Hiropon Factory, his production workshop, in order to work on a larger scale and in a more diverse array of media. His model inherits the atelier system which has long existed in Japanese painting, printmaking and sculpture and is common to anime and manga enterprises, such as Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. In 2001, Hiropon Factory was incorporated as Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.

Collaborations

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." He also provided cover artwork for West's 2018 collaboration album Kids See Ghosts with Kid Cudi.

For Graduation and "Good Morning", 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.

Asked about straddling the line between art and commercial products, Murakami responded:

I don't think of it as straddling. I think of it as changing the line. What I've been talking about for years is how in Japan, that line is less defined. Both by the culture and by the post-War economic situation. Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and in fact, they are surprised by the rigid and pretentious Western hierarchy of "high art." In the West, it certainly is dangerous to blend the two because people will throw all sorts of stones. But that's okay—I'm ready with my hard hat.

Murakami has also collaborated with a wide range of creators and industries in Japan, a prominent example being the image characters he created for the press relations campaign of the major urban real estate development Roppongi Hills.

In 2009, music producer Pharrell Williams unveiled a collaborative sculpture with Murakami at Art Basel, which Williams stated "illustrates the metaphor of value."

Murakami and McG directed short Akihabara Majokko Princess, where Kirsten Dunst sings a cover of The Vapors' 1980 song "Turning Japanese". This was shown at the "Pop Life" exhibition in London's Tate Modern museum from October 1, 2009, to January 17, 2010. It shows Dunst dancing around Akihabara, a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan.

In May 2014, with Pharrell and Kz of livetune, Murakami created a music video for the remix of the Hatsune Miku song "Last Night, Good Night (Re:Dialed)". The team was assembled by the YouTube channel The Creators Project, headed by Vice and Intel. The same year, Murakami's anime-inspired illustrations from his first film Jellyfish Eyes, also adorned a T-shirt by Billionaire Boys Club, the brand co-founded by Pharrell and Nigo.

In Fall of 2015, Takashi collaborated with Vans. The name of this collaboration was Vault By Vans x Takashi Murakami Collection. His artwork was on Vans classic slip on, apparel and skateboard decks for an illuminated time and only in selected stores. His artwork mostly consisted of his famous skull and flower designs.

In 2018, Takashi Murakami collaborated with fashion designer Virgil Abloh on an artwork series, mixing fashion with Murakami's art. Takashi and Virgil discuss their careers and their collaboration at length in their interview for Cultured Magazine's fall 2018 issue where they are featured on the cover.

In March 2019, Billie Eilish released one of two official music videos for "You Should See Me in a Crown", one being directed and animated by Takashi Murakami. Murakami stated in a press release that the anime-style video, which was animated using motion capture technology, took eight months for him to create. The video opens with an animated version of Eilish, dressed in a neon-green shirt and shorts, eventually morphing into a spider-like monster that wreaks havoc on a miniature city. The video features the "Blohsh", Eilish's signature logo, as well as Murakami's flowers. The late rapper Juice WRLD approached Murakami to do a project several weeks before his untimely death, as a result of which, the project could never be completed.

In March 2020, J Balvin released his album Colores featuring album cover designs and artwork by Takashi Murakami. The Murakami-designed artwork was carried over to merchandise to celebrate the release of his album.

In April 2020, Supreme released a Box Logo Tee featuring artwork from Murakami. All the proceeds went to HELP USA, in order to support youth and families facing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Murakami collaborated with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton on his +44 fashion range. Murakami also designed his helmet for that year's Japanese Grand Prix.

In June 2024, Murakami collaborated with k-pop group NewJeans to create exclusive merchandise and album designs for their Japanese debut single "Supernatural".

In November 2024, Murakami designed the album cover for Juice WRLD's final posthumous studio album The Party Never Ends, and a limited-time loading screen for his collaboration in Fortnite.

In March 2025, Murakami collaborated with Topps to create a set of baseball cards celebrating Major League Baseball's 2025 Tokyo Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. In May 2025, he collaborated with the champagne brand Dom Pérignon for a campaign named "Creation is an Eternal Journey".

2007–present

From 2007 to 2009, Murakami's first retrospective ©Murakami traveled from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles (its multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary art), to the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and lastly the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. Sarah Thornton tracks the early stages of the exhibition's planning, including in-depth curatorial meetings between Murakami and prominent museum figures, in Seven Days in the Art World. The exhibition earned widespread attention for, among other things, including a fully functioning Louis Vuitton boutique as one of the exhibits.

In 2008, Murakami was named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", the only visual artist included.

In September 2010 Murakami became the third contemporary artist, and first Japanese, to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles in France, filling 15 rooms and the park with his sculptures, paintings, a decorative carpet, and lamps.

On June 21, 2011, Google featured a doodle tagged as "First Day of Summer" which was created by Murakami. This was accompanied by a Winter Solstice doodle for the Southern Hemisphere.

In February 2012, Murakami opened an exhibition in Doha, Qatar. Titled Murakami-Ego, this showed around 60 old works alongside new ones designed especially for the exhibition. Among the new ones, a 100-metre long wall painting depicting the suffering of the Japanese people after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In March 2013, livetune released a PV, directed by Murakami, for Redial, featuring Hatsune Miku.

In April 2013, Murakami's first feature film was released in theaters across Japan. Jellyfish Eyes (originally titled "Me me me no kurage)) is a live-action movie featuring CGI characters designed by Murakami called Friend.

In 2019, Murakami was working on his own album of original folk songs, inspired by Japanese group Happy End.

In December 2024, the largest private collection of Murakami prints was displayed in the exhibition "Tokyo Calling" at Guy Hepner, New York which featured over 30 original prints and explored the artist's superflat style.

From Wikipedia’s article on Takashi Murakami (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornFeb 1, 1962, Tokyo9 10
  • CitizenshipJapan11
  • SpouseChiho Aoshima12

Sources

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