Takashi Murakami

Perhaps the most well known Japanese Artist of modern times, Takashi Murakami was born in 1962. He had started initially as an artist of traditional Japanese paintings (called Nihonga in Japanese) but later got attracted to popular present day Japanese culture ( Otaku) obsessed with cartoons, Anime and Manga comics, robotics, etc. Since then Murakami started producing works of art which takes imagery and ideas from popular culture. He in fact blurred the difference between fine art and commercial art and started a new style of art works which he called Superflat.

Murakami's art work

Murakami has revolutionized the art-practice in his own country by opening a company called Kaikai Kiki which employs other Superflat artists and a factory called Hiropon factory which employs people of varied profession to manufacture art works of various types, material and scale.

Murakami designed skate-boards

Superflat Art is today considered a movement in Japanese modern art which is followed by many new generation artists including Aya Takano, Chiho Aoshima, Rei Sato, and others, who hold an annual exhibition (called Geisai Art Fair) of such art jointly in New York, Tokyo and other places.

Takashi Murakami’s style constantly changes as he takes images from popular culture. But there are some characteristic features like flat colours, odd figures with disproportionate bodies, etc.

Today Murakami is one of the most commercially successful artists in the world and perhaps the most well known Asian artist. He travels widely as an artist, entrepreneur, designer, all rolled into one.