Contemporary art of Japan: happy birthday, Takashi Murakami. CraftsGirl

Takashi Murakami is one of the most prominent representatives of modern psychedelic pop art. Murakami's works amaze with their cheerfulness, brightness and childish spontaneity. The artist is active on social networks, he communicates with fans, constantly publishes photographs on Instagram.

Takashi Murakami even manages to combine the talents of an artist, sculptor, designer and businessman. He himself curates his exhibitions, studies the market and its mechanisms, and 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 traditional Japanese painting of the nineteenth century, 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's Afraid of Red, Yellow, Blue and Death", 2010, Gagosian Gallery.

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

In 2000, Murakami curated the exhibition Superflat, which explored 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 Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In 2010, the artist's works were exhibited at the Palace of Versailles in France.

“Tang 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.

“The Cry of the Newborn Universe,” 2014, Gagosian Gallery.

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

Double Perspective: Contemporary Art of Japan
Curators Elena Yaichnikova and Kenjiro Hosaka

Part one: "Reality/Ordinary World." Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Mt. Moscow, Ermolaevsky lane, 17
Part two: “Imaginary World/Fantasies.” Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Mt. Moscow, Gogolevsky Boulevard, 10

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with the Japan Foundation presents the exhibition “Double Perspective: Contemporary Art of Japan”, designed to introduce the general public to contemporary Japanese artists.
A double perspective means 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 different directions, working from the 70s of the 20th century to the present. The project consists of two parts - “The Real World/Everyday Life” and “Imaginary World/Fantasy” - which are located on the museum’s 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). In the series of video works “Requiem”, Yasumasa Morimura impersonates various historical characters: Chaplin, writer Yukio Mishima and even Lenin – and recreates episodes from their lives. Another participant in the project, 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 1965 and 2003 versions and the sound installation “Cough Piece” (1961). The exhibition will feature works by Kishio Suga, one of the central representatives of the Mono-Ha movement (translated as “School of Things”), which offered a Japanese alternative to Western modernism. The photo section will present works by Toshio Shibata, Takashi Homma and Lieko Shiga.

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

The works that make up the second part of the project will present to the public a free, imaginary world in which everything that we are not able to see in real life, everything that is beyond its borders, exists. The works of the artists in 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 exhibitor puts his own meaning into the concept of “imagination.” Thus, 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 seen in the work of Yayoi Kusama: by projecting her fantasies onto reality, she creates a world full of bizarre patterns. The giant sculpture “Child of the Sun” (2011) by Kenji Yanobe was created during 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 the impetus for the creation of a new world. The Imaginary World/Fantasy section also features works by Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, Hiraki Sawa and many others.
Some works were created specifically for the exhibition. The artist Yoshinori Niwa for his project “Vladimir Lenin is wanted in Moscow apartments” (2012) came to Moscow in order to find artifacts associated with the personality of the revolutionary in the apartments of Muscovites. His work is video documentation of his searches and travels around Moscow. The artist Tetsuya Umeda, whose works will be presented simultaneously at two venues, will come to Moscow to implement his installations on site.
These two, at first glance, disparate parts of the exhibition are intended to show the two poles of Japanese art, which in reality turn out to be inseparable from each other.
As part 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 represents contemporary Japanese art for the first time on such a scale.

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

Kishio 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 Ezpo Memorial Park"70
Photo: Thomas Swab

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

In answer to the question posed, I would like to present to your attention Japanese contemporary art. At a conference at the Mori Art Museum on internationalism in contemporary art last year, University of Tokyo professor Michio Hayashi suggested that popular perceptions of “Japaneseness” in the West were cemented in the 1980s by the trinity of “kitsch,” “naturalness,” and “technological sophistication.” Today, popular, and especially commercially popular, contemporary art in Japan can still be placed within 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 exhibition “teamLab: Ultra Subjective Space” lasted until 15 August is almost nearby (508-510 W 25th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan); and “The Arhats Cycle” by Takashi Murakami at the Palazzo Reale in Milan still continues to captivate and surprise visitors.

All works presented were created after March 11, 2011, when the tsunami hit Japan. The nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant united the nation, forced it to reconsider priorities and values, and once again turn to long-forgotten traditions. Art could not stand aside and introduced the world to a new type of artist, focused on the needs of the modern viewer, and at the same time honoring 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 shocking 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 the two terrible days of 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, taking a step towards returning to roots and spirituality. The first work that marked the beginning of 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 is not only us, that there are forces independent of us, and that we must improve every time in order to stop being dependent on our own desires and affects. The dense wall of arhats, as if protecting spectators from the raging elements throughout the entire 100 meters of the canvas, instilled peace and tranquility in everyone’s soul. But Murakami did not limit himself to just one work and continued the cycle of paintings, complementing and expanding the narrative, as if using the manga technique and telling the story in visual design. The second part of the series was presented at the Blum & Poe gallery (Los Angeles) in 2013. Today, in Milan, the arhats are traveling around the world for the third time, spreading the idea of ​​a return to spirituality and renunciation of emotions. Despite the edification and depth of meaning, the paintings are easily perceived due to the bold and bright color scheme, the artistic language itself. Elements of manga brought into them the necessary amount of popularization so that the transmitted ideas of Buddhism could be easily read and perceived 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 painting them over stickers to create extra depth and visual chaos. From random images scattered all over the Internet, he constructs collages, breaking up backgrounds, creating mandalas that reflect the structure and content of the imagination of otaku (anime and manga fans). Appeal to the Buddhist symbol enhances the semantic value of the young artist’s works, connecting, on the one hand, the sacred and established in culture, on the other hand, modern issues, but again with the inclusion of a specifically Japanese phenomenon - anime.

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

It is surprising that after the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan, a 16-year-old boy who was trapped under the rubble of his home for nine days and was rescued answered a journalist’s question about his dreams for the future: “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 works of masters from the Land of the Rising Sun, you will think that you have arrived on another planet! Home to innovators who have changed the landscape of the industry on a global scale. Here's a list of 10 contemporary Japanese artists and their creations, from the incredible creatures of Takashi Murakami (who celebrates 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 clothing. 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, and we will also meet some of them today. “Subcultural” works of Takashi Murakami are presented in the art markets of fashion and art. 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.

Quietly Ashima and her surreal universe

A member of the art production company Kaikai Kiki and the Superflat movement (both founded by Takashi Murakami), Chicho Ashima is known for her fantastical cityscapes and strange pop creatures. The artist creates surreal 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, and plastic. In 2006, this contemporary Japanese artist participated in Art on the Underground in London. She created 17 consecutive arches for the platform - the magical landscape gradually turned from daytime to nighttime, from urban to rural. This miracle bloomed at Gloucester Road tube station.

Chiharu Shima and the endless threads

Another artist, Chiharu Shiota, works 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 impenetrable networks of black thread that envelop a variety of everyday and personal objects, such as old chairs, a wedding dress, a burnt piano. In the summer of 2014, Shiota tied together donated shoes and boots (of which there were more than 300) with strands of red yarn and hung them on hooks. Chiharu's first exhibition in the German capital took place during Berlin Art Week in 2016 and caused a sensation.

Hey Arakawa: everywhere, nowhere

Hei Arakawa is inspired by states of change, periods of instability, elements of risk, and his installations often symbolize 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 works were exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in the exhibition of Japanese contemporary art at the Mori Museum of Art (Tokyo). The installation Hawaiian Presence (2014) was a collaboration with New York artist Carissa Rodriguez and was included in the Whitney Biennial. Also in 2014, Arakawa and his brother Tomu, performing as a duo called United Brothers, offered visitors to Frieze London their “work” “The This Soup Taste Ambivalent” with “radioactive” Fukushima daikon root vegetables.

Koki Tanaka: Relationships and Repetitions

In 2015, Koki Tanaka was recognized as “Artist of the Year”. Tanaka explores the shared experience of creativity and imagination, encourages exchange between project participants, and advocates for new rules of collaboration. Its installation in the Japanese pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale consisted of videos of objects that transformed the space into a platform for artistic exchange. The installations of Koki Tanaka (not to be confused with his full namesake actor) illustrate the relationship between objects and actions, for example, the video contains recordings of simple gestures performed with ordinary objects (a knife cutting 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, photographs, and objects. She is characterized by a minimalist futuristic vision and sleek surreal forms. A recurring theme in Mori'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 created a series of art installations honoring the six inhabited continents. Most recently, the Foundation's permanent installation "Ring: One with Nature" was erected 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 primarily deals with sound in various “raw” states, from sine waves to noise using frequencies at the edge of human hearing. His immersive installations include computer-generated sounds that are visually transformed into video projections or digital patterns. Ikeda's audiovisual art uses scale, light, shadow, volume, electronic sounds and rhythm. The artist's famous test facility consists of five projectors that illuminate an area 28 meters long and 8 meters wide. The setup converts data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcodes and binary patterns of ones and zeros.

Tatsuo Miyajima and LED counters

Contemporary Japanese sculptor and installation artist Tatsuo Miyajima uses electrical circuits, videos, computers and other gadgets in his art. Miyajima's core concepts are inspired by humanistic ideas and Buddhist teachings. The LED counters in his installations flash continuously in repetition from 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 ideas of continuity, eternity, connection, and the flow of time and space. Recently, Miyajima's "Arrow of Time" was shown at the inaugural exhibition "Unfinished 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 childhood feelings 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, Yoshimoto’s first solo exhibition, entitled “Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool,” was held at the Asia Society Museum in New York, covering the 20-year career of the contemporary Japanese artist. The exhibits were closely related to global youth subcultures and their alienation and protest.

Yayoi Kusama and space growing into strange forms

The amazing creative biography of Yayoi Kusama lasts seven decades. During this time, the 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 very distinctive style of dot art that has become her trademark. The illusory visions depicted in 88-year-old Kusama's work—where the world appears to be covered in sprawling, outlandish forms—are the result of hallucinations she has experienced since childhood. Rooms with colorful dots and “infinity” mirrors reflecting their clusters are recognizable and cannot be confused with anything else.