Japanese Contemporary Art: Happy Birthday, Takashi Murakami. CraftsGirl

Takashi Murakami is one of the brightest representatives of contemporary psychedelic pop art. Murakami's works amaze with their cheerfulness, brightness and childish immediacy. The artist is active in social networks, he communicates with fans, constantly publishes photos in Instagram.

Takashi Murakami even manages to combine the talent of an artist, sculptor, designer and businessman. He himself oversees his exhibitions, studies the market and its mechanisms, collaborates with fashion brands. Murakami has his own studio, Kaikai Kiki, where he works on cartoons.

Takashi Murakami was born in 1962 in Tokyo. Here he received his doctorate from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he studied the nineteenth century traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga. The popularity of anime directed Murakami's interest in animation, saying that "it represents modern life in Japan". Murakami's work was also influenced by American pop culture - animation, comics, fashion. The artist always names his works mysteriously, strangely and sometimes difficult to translate.

“Who is afraid of red, yellow, blue and death”, 2010, Gagosian Gallery.

Homage to Mono Pink, 1960 G, 2013, Perrotin Gallery.

In 2000, Murakami curated the Superflat exhibition on the influence of the entertainment industry on contemporary aesthetics and the perception of contemporary art. In his works, Murakami balances between East and West and plays with opposites. In 2007, a retrospective exhibition "© Murakami" was held, which was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Los Angeles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In 2010, the artist's works were exhibited at the Palace of Versailles in France.

“Tan Tan Bo - communicates”, 2014, Gagosian Gallery.

"And then, when it's all over ... I changed what I was yesterday, like an insect crawling on the skin", 2009.

"Cry of the Newborn Universe", 2014, Gagosian Gallery.

Tadasu Takamine. "God Save America", 2002. Video (8 min. 18 sec.)

Double Perspective: Japanese Contemporary Art
Curators Elena Yaichnikova and Kenjiro Hosaka

Part one: "Reality/Ordinary World". Moscow Museum of Modern Art, mountains. Moscow, Ermolaevsky lane, 17
Part two: "Imaginary World/Fantasy". Moscow Museum of Modern Art, mountains. Moscow, Gogolevsky Boulevard, 10

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, together with the Japan Foundation, presents the exhibition "Double Perspective: Japanese Contemporary Art", designed to acquaint the general public with contemporary Japanese artists.
A double perspective is two curators from different countries, two museum sites and a two-part project structure. Curated by Elena Yaichnikova and Kenjiro Hosaka, the exhibition brings together the works of more than 30 artists of various styles who have worked from the 1970s to the present. The project consists of two parts - "The Real World / Everyday Life" and "Imaginary World / Fantasies" - which are located on the museum grounds at 17 Ermolaevsky Lane and 10 Gogolevsky Boulevard.

Part One: "Reality/Ordinary World"

The first part of the exhibition "Real World/Everyday" presents the view of Japanese artists on the world around us through an appeal to world history of the 20th century (Yasumasa Morimura, Yoshinori Niwa and Yuken Teruya), reflections on the structure of modern society (Dumb Type and Tadasu Takamine), interaction with urban space (contact Gonzo and ChimPom) and the search for poetry in everyday life (Shimabuku, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Kohei Kobayashi and Tetsuya Umeda). Yasumasa Morimura in the series of video works "Requiem" transforms into various historical characters: Chaplin, writer Yukio Mishima and even Lenin - and recreates episodes from their lives. Another project participant, Tetsuya Umeda, creates installations from improvised means, ordinary things - thus, the most banal everyday life becomes art. The exhibition will feature works by Yoko Ono - the famous "Cut Piece" in the version of 1965 and 2003 and the sound installation "Cough Piece" (1961). The exhibition will present the works of Kishio Suga, one of the central representatives of the Mono-Ha movement (Mono-Ha, translated as "School of things"), which offered a Japanese alternative to Western modernism. The photo section will present the work of Toshio Shibata, Takashi Homma and Lieko Shiga.

Yayoi Kusama. "I'm here but nowhere", 2000. Mixed media. Installation at the Maison de la culture du Japon, Paris.
Author's collection

The works that make up the second part of the project will present the public with a free, imaginary world in which there are everything that we are not able to see in real life, everything that is beyond its borders. The works of the artists of this part of the exhibition refer to Japanese pop culture, the world of fantasy, naivety, myths and reflections on the cosmogonic structure of the world. Each participant of the exhibition puts his own meaning into the concept of "imagination". So the artist Tadanori Yokoo, in his relationship with the imaginary world, makes disappearance, or rather “self-disappearance”, the main theme of his works. A similar motif can be traced in the work of Yayoi Kusama: by projecting her fantasies into reality, she creates a world full of bizarre patterns. The giant sculpture "Child of the Sun" (2011) by Kenji Yanobe was created at a terrible time when there was an explosion at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. His monumental object becomes a point of intersection of imaginations. The artist understands that the experience experienced on the border of the real will become an impetus for the creation of a new world. The Imaginary World/Fantasy part also features works by Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, Hiraki Sawa and many more.
Some of the works were created specifically for the exhibition. The artist Yoshinori Niva came to Moscow for his project “Vladimir Lenin is wanted in Moscow apartments” (2012) in order to find artifacts related to the personality of the revolutionary in the apartments of Muscovites. His work is a video documentation of his searches and travels around Moscow. Artist Tetsuya Umeda, whose work will be presented simultaneously at two venues, will come to Moscow to realize his installations on site.
These two, at first glance, incomparable parts of the exhibition are designed to show the two poles of Japanese art, which in reality turn out to be inseparable from each other.
Within the framework of the exhibition, it is also planned to hold open master classes and creative meetings with project participants. There will be lectures by Japanese curator Kenjiro Hosaka and artist Kenji Yanobe. For Russia, this exhibition for the first time presents contemporary Japanese art on such a scale.

Yoshitomo Nara. "Candy-blue night", 2001. 1166.5 x 100 cm. Acrylic on canvas
Photo: Yoshitaka Uchida

Kisio Suga "Space of Separation", 1975. Branches and concrete blocks. 184 x 240 x 460 cm
Photo: Yoshitaka Uchida

Kenji Yanobe. "Child of the Sun", 2011. Fiberglass, steel, neon, etc. 620 x 444 x 263 cm. Installation in the memorial park Ezpo"70
Photo: Thomas Swab

Today's world is often blamed for a spiritual crisis, for the destruction of ties with traditions, for globalization, which inevitably absorbs national foundations. Everything is personalized and depersonalized at the same time. If we could divide the so-called classical art into national schools and imagine what is Italian art, what is German art, and what is French; then can we divide contemporary art into the same “schools”?

In answer to this question, I would like to present Japanese contemporary art to your attention. At a conference at the Mori Art Museum on the topic of internationalism in contemporary art last year, University of Tokyo professor Michio Hayashi suggested that the popular perception of “Japaneseness” in the West was cemented in the 1980s by the trinity of “kitsch,” “naturalness,” and “technological sophistication.” Today, the popular, and especially the commercially popular contemporary art of Japan can still be placed in this triangle. For the Western viewer, it remains mysterious and original due to the specific features inherent only in the art of the Land of the Rising Sun. In August, West and East met at three art venues at once: until August 8, the exhibition “Duality of Existence – Post-Fukushima” was held in Manhattan (515 W 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan), the exposition “teamLab: Ultra Subjective Space” lasted until 15 August is practically nearby (508-510 W 25th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan); and the “Arhat Cycle” by Takashi Murakami at the Palazzo Reale, in Milan, still continues to conquer and amaze visitors.

All artworks shown were created after March 11, 2011, when the tsunami hit Japan. The nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant rallied the nation, made it necessary to reconsider priorities and values, and turn again to long-forgotten traditions. Art could not stand aside and presented the world with a new type of artist, focused on the needs of the modern audience, and at the same time honoring the historical foundations and values.

Takashi Murakami is a commercially successful artist who popularized techno-kitsch and created a new visual language superflat, based on the traditions of Japanese nihonga painting and the specifics of anime and manga. The ideology of his replicated sculptures and outrageous installations was to demonstrate the change in Japan after the war, when consumerism became prevalent. But March 11, 2011 divided the life of Japan into "before" and "after", like two terrible days in August 1945, when nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that strong earthquake, which led to terrible consequences, Murakami embarked on the path of rethinking Buddhism and Japanese aesthetics, took a step towards returning to the origins and spirituality. The first work that initiated the Arhats cycle is 500 Arhats, shown at Takashi Murakami's solo exhibition in Doha, Qatar, in 2012. The return to Buddhist themes is explained by the author as an attempt to realize that in this world there are not only us, that there are forces that are independent of us, and that we must improve every time in order to stop being dependent on our own desires and affects. A dense wall of arhats, as if protecting the audience from the raging elements throughout the entire 100 meters of the canvas, instilled peace and tranquility in the soul of everyone. But Murakami did not limit himself to just one work and continued the cycle of paintings, supplementing and expanding the narrative, as if using a manga technique and telling a story in visual design. The second part of the cycle was presented at the Blum & Poe Gallery (Los Angeles) in 2013. Today, in Milan, the arhats are traveling the world for the third time, spreading the idea of ​​a return to spirituality and renunciation of passions. Despite the edification and depth of meaning, the paintings are easily perceived because of the bold and bright color decision, the artistic language itself. Manga elements brought to them that necessary share of popularization so that the broadcast ideas of Buddhism were easily read and accepted even by the uninitiated public.

The next representative of modern Japanese painting can be called Kazuki Umezawa, a student of Murakami, which brings us back to the question of school and continuity. He creates digital renderings of anime characters by drawing them on top of stickers to create extra depth and visual chaos. From random and scattered images all over the Internet, he constructs collages, breaks backgrounds, creating mandalas that reflect the structure and content of the imagination of otaku (anime and manga fans). The appeal to the Buddhist symbol enhances the semantic value of the young artist's works, connecting, on the one hand, the sacred and the established in culture, on the other hand, modern issues, but again with the inclusion of a specific Japanese phenomenon - anime.

Takashi Murakami and Kazuki Umezawa skillfully balance between relevance and tradition, kitsch and style.

Surprisingly, after the earthquake on March 11, 2011 in Japan, a 16-year-old boy who was trapped under the rubble of his house for nine days and was rescued, when asked by a journalist about his future dreams, answered: “I want to become an artist.”

Art and design

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01.02.18 09:02

Today's art scene in Japan is very diverse and provocative: looking at the work of masters from the Land of the Rising Sun, you will think that you have landed on another planet! It is home to innovators who have changed the landscape of the industry on a global scale. Here is a list of 10 contemporary Japanese artists and their creations, from the incredible creatures of Takashi Murakami (who is celebrating his birthday today) to the colorful universe of Kusama.

From futuristic worlds to dotted constellations: contemporary Japanese artists

Takashi Murakami: traditionalist and classic

Let's start with the hero of the occasion! Takashi Murakami is one of Japan's most iconic contemporary artists, working on paintings, large-scale sculptures and fashion. Murakami's style is influenced by manga and anime. He is the founder of the Superflat movement, which supports Japanese artistic traditions and the country's post-war culture. Murakami promoted many of his fellow contemporaries, we will also get to know some of them today. "Subcultural" works by Takashi Murakami are presented in the fashion and art art markets. His provocative My Lonesome Cowboy (1998) was sold in New York at Sotheby's in 2008 for a record $15.2 million. Murakami has collaborated with world famous brands Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton and Issey Miyake.

Tycho Asima and her surreal universe

A member of the art production company Kaikai Kiki and the Superflat movement (both founded by Takashi Murakami), Chiho Ashima is known for her fantasy cityscapes and weird pop creatures. The artist creates surrealistic dreams inhabited by demons, ghosts, young beauties depicted against the backdrop of outlandish nature. Her works are usually large-scale and printed on paper, leather, plastic. In 2006, this contemporary Japanese artist participated in Art on the Underground in London. She created 17 successive arches for the platform - the magical landscape gradually turned from day to night, from urban to rural. This miracle blossomed at the Gloucester Road tube station.

Chiharu Shima and Infinite Threads

Another artist, Chiharu Shiota, is working on large-scale visual installations for specific landmarks. She was born in Osaka, but now lives in Germany - in Berlin. The central themes of her work are oblivion and memory, dreams and reality, past and present, and also the confrontation of anxiety. Chiharu Shiota's most famous works are the impenetrable webs of black thread that envelop many everyday and personal items such as old chairs, a wedding dress, a burnt piano. In the summer of 2014, Shiota connected more than 300 shoes and boots donated to her with threads of red yarn and hung them on hooks. Chiharu's first exhibition in the German capital was held during the Berlin Art Week in 2016 and caused a sensation.

Hey Arakawa: everywhere, not anywhere

Ei Arakawa is inspired by states of change, periods of instability, elements of risk, and his installations often symbolize the themes of friendship and teamwork. The credo of the contemporary Japanese artist is defined by the performative indefinite "everywhere but nowhere". His creations pop up in unexpected places. In 2013, Arakawa's work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in the exhibition of Japanese contemporary art at the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo). The Hawaiian Presence installation (2014) was a collaboration with New York-based artist Carissa Rodriguez and featured in the Whitney Biennale. Also in 2014, Arakawa and his brother Tomu, performing as a duet called the United Brothers, offered visitors to Frieze London their "work" "The This Soup Taste Ambivalent" with "radioactive" Fukushima daikon roots.

Koki Tanaka: Relationship and Repetition

In 2015, Koki Tanaka was named Artist of the Year. Tanaka explores the shared experience of creativity and imagination, encourages exchange between project participants, and advocates for new rules for collaboration. His installation in the Japanese pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale consisted of videos of objects turning the space into a platform for art exchange. Koki Tanaka's installations (not to be confused with his full namesake actor) illustrate the relationship between objects and actions, such as the video recording of simple gestures performed with ordinary objects (knife slicing vegetables, beer being poured into a glass, opening an umbrella). Nothing significant happens, but the obsessive repetition and attention to the smallest details make the viewer appreciate the mundane.

Mariko Mori and streamlined shapes

Another contemporary Japanese artist, Mariko Mori, "conjures" multimedia objects, combining videos, photos, objects. She has a minimalist futuristic vision and sleek, surreal forms. A recurring theme in Maury's work is the juxtaposition of Western legend with Western culture. In 2010, Mariko founded the Fau Foundation, an educational cultural non-profit organization, for which she produced a series of her art installations honoring the six inhabited continents. Most recently, the Foundation's permanent installation, The Ring: One with Nature, was hoisted over a picturesque waterfall in Resende near Rio de Janeiro.

Ryoji Ikeda: Sound and Video Synthesis

Ryoji Ikeda is a new media artist and composer whose work is mainly related to sound in different "raw" states, from sinusoidal sounds to noises using frequencies at the edge of human hearing. His breathtaking installations include computer-generated sounds that are visually transformed into video projections or digital templates. Ikeda's audiovisual art objects use scale, light, shadow, volume, electronic sounds and rhythm. The artist's famous test object consists of five projectors that illuminate an area 28 meters long and 8 meters wide. The unit converts data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into a barcode and binary patterns of zeros and ones.

Tatsuo Miyajima and LED counters

Modern Japanese sculptor and montage artist Tatsuo Miyajima uses electrical circuits, videos, computers and other gadgets in his art. The main concepts of Miyajima are inspired by humanistic ideas and Buddhist teachings. The LED counters in his setup flash continuously in a repetition of 1 to 9, symbolizing the journey from life to death, but avoiding the finality that is represented by 0 (zero never appears in Tatsuo's work). The ubiquitous numbers in grids, towers, and diagrams express Miyajima's interest in the ideas of continuity, eternity, connection, and the flow of time and space. Not so long ago, Miyajima's Arrow of Time object was shown at the inaugural exhibition "Incomplete Thoughts Visible in New York".

Nara Yoshimoto and the Evil Children

Nara Yoshimoto creates paintings, sculptures and drawings of children and dogs, subjects that reflect the childish sense of boredom and frustration and the fierce independence that comes naturally to toddlers. The aesthetic of Yoshimoto's work is reminiscent of traditional book illustrations, a mixture of restless tension and the artist's love of punk rock. In 2011, the Asian Society Museum in New York hosted Yoshitomo's first solo exhibition entitled "Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool", covering the 20-year career of a contemporary Japanese artist. The exhibits were closely connected with world youth subcultures, their alienation and protest.

Yayoi Kusama and the space that grows with outlandish forms

An amazing creative biography of Yayoi Kusama spans seven decades. During this time, an amazing Japanese woman managed to study the fields of painting, graphics, collage, sculpture, cinema, engraving, environmental art, installation, as well as literature, fashion and clothing design. Kusama developed a highly distinctive style of dot art that has become her trademark. The illusory visions presented in the works of the 88-year-old Kusama - when the world seems to be covered with proliferating outlandish forms - are the result of hallucinations that she has experienced since childhood. Rooms with colorful dots and "endless" mirrors reflecting their accumulations are recognizable, they cannot be confused with anything else.