From Louis Vuitton bags to Perrier bottles, Supreme skate decks and Kanye West’s album artworks, Takashi Murakami (born in 1962) has been everywhere for the last 25 years. The Japanese neo-pop artist is used to include computer and technology in his work, and notably cryptocurrency and NFT in these recent years. The name of his last show, Understanding the New Cognitive Domain, curated by Gagosian, refers to his will to capture the essence of the latest technology, as AI makes the headlines.
It is in a former private jet hangar near Le Bourget airport, in the north of Paris, that the American gallery Gagosian exhibits Murakami recent works until December 22nd 2023.
The visit begins with a set of banners depicting various economics actors or thinkers through history, such as Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx or Elon Musk, followed by a serie of pixelated Flowers and Lucky Cats, characteristics of the Superflat aesthetic he coined.
In the next room, two human-sized mirror-plated figures are waiting for the visitors, along with their two portraits, which refer to the Clone X NFTs collaboration between Murakami and RTFKT Studios in 2021.
Finally, and that’s the interest of exhibiting in such big space, four monumental paintings cover the walls of the former hangar, the two first ones featuring Murakami’s flowers, in various sizes and colors.
In a more traditional way, the multiple panels Dragon in Clouds – Indigo Blue is a reinterpretation of the painting Dragon and Clouds made by the Japanese artist Soga Shōhaku in 1763, which can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston.
Eventually, a monumental 5 by 23 meters painting based on the iwai-maku (stage curtain) made by Murakami for the Kabuki-za theater in Ginza, is the most impressive work of the show. The painting is depicting the assumption of the kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI to the name Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII, Hakuen.
Photos credits: @elegantinparis
Elégances Parisiennes 