Takashi Murukami

Kanye West, music video art created by Murukami:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CHs4x2uqcQ

     Takashi Murakami was born in 1962 in Tokyo, and received his BFA, MFA and PhD from the Tokyo University of the Arts. He believes that an artist is someone who makes an effort to know the borders between worlds He works in fine arts media such as painting and sculpture as well as considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation Murukami is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. He coined the term superflat, flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts a movement. Murakami was unsatisfied 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. Although he gained attention from this, his art was not well received. 

Murkami's art is very pop art-ish, it's very hard to separate it from anime and cartoons. I think of his art as anime, when actually anime derived from his art. It's hard to create a critique on his art, as there is a culture difference. Murakami states that he creates his art to reflect Japan's post-war era. The use of bright color embraces the idea of pop art and makes it very modern. Allowing the idea of  commercialized artHis art shows the major differences between cultures. In Japan there is no boundary between what is art and what is commerce

I think the fact that Murukami blurs the lines between "high art" and art that can be commercialized is very interesting.(Especially designing a Kanye West music video.)  This however may earn him many negative critiques. There is this stigma that comes with art and that it shouldn't be commercialized. By commercializing his artwork he reaches a larger audience for his creations. It also gives the idea of a modern more diverse world.

I really like Murukami's art. It's very different from what people usually define art as. It makes us (or at least me) How animations and fashion are also art. TV shows, music and fashion define our society. By putting his art in commercialized things, he is able to incorporate today's society in his art without just literally creating what he sees.

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/takashi-murakami
http://www.takashimurakami.com/