Takashi Murakami - Contemporary Art London Friday, October 13, 2006 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris

  • Exhibited

    Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, June 27-October 27, 2002 and London, Serpentine Gallery, November 2002-January 2003, Takashi Murakami, no. 26

  • Literature

    T. Murakami, Serpentine Gallery and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain,eds., Takashi Murakami, Paris, no. 26 (illustrated as drawing); M. Brehm, ed., The Japanese Experience: Inevitable, Ostfildern, 2002, p. 112 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    “When I was a child I was really a big fan of Shigeru Mizuki, a manga author. He created a character called Hyakume (“Hundred Eyes”) who, as his name indicates, had eyes all over his body. He was a kind of ghost. I loved him. The eyes on the gifure were done in phosphorescent paint, and though we were a very poor family, my father offered me the toy. In the evening, when we came home from the public baths, we could see those eyes shining in the darkness of the house It was as if the toy was there everyday to greet me when I came home. When I started drawing mushrooms, I remembered this character and its eyes – I don’t know shy, Perhaps because he too was a bit mushroom-shaped. It’s a very primitive image, with no conceptual context.” (Takashi Murakami quoted in Takashi Murakami, London & Paris, 2002, p. 81)

  • Artist Biography

    Takashi Murakami

    Japanese • 1962

    Takashi Murakami is best known for his contemporary combination of fine art and pop culture. He uses recognizable iconography like Mickey Mouse and cartoonish flowers and infuses it with Japanese culture. The result is a boldly colorful body of work that takes the shape of paintings, sculptures and animations.

    In the 1990s, Murakami founded the Superflat movement in an attempt to expose the "shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture." The artist plays on the familiar aesthetic of mangas, Japanese-language comics, to render works that appear democratic and accessible, all the while denouncing the universality and unspecificity of consumer goods. True to form, Murakami has done collaborations with numerous brands and celebrities including Kanye West, Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams and Google.

    View More Works

39

Scarlet Heart

2002
Steel, synthetic resin, fiberglass, paint, sand and wooden pedestal.
49 3/8 x 59 1/2 x 60 in. (125.4 x 151.1 x 152.4 cm).
This work is from an edition of five plus one artist’s proof.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 

Contemporary Art

14 Oct 2006, 7pm
London