Visual Studies Seminar: Third Blog Post

I am a fan of Takashi Murakami, a Japanese contemporary artist best known for his artwork in the style of superflat, a style that he himself gave the name to and is also credited with founding. Through his superflat artworks, Murakami has worked to try to close the gap that exists between high culture and low culture, by way of presenting artwork that would be considered “low culture” and displaying them at “high culture” art shows as well as making merchandise, which is considered low culture, out of artworks that would traditionally be classified as high culture. Murakami takes much of the inspiration for his artwork from manga and anime, which both contain deeply-rooted elements of traditional Japanese culture and have large international followings. His impressive resume includes a BFA, an MFA, and a Ph.D., all from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Murakami’s first full-length feature film, Jellyfish Eyes, was released throughout Japan in April 2013. The film was live-action with CGI characters that Murakami had personally designed. The vision that Murakami has always had is to find a way to blend the two extremes of Japanese art: the pre-WW2 traditional and the heavily Western-influenced post-WW2. I first learned of Murakami a few months ago through a friend, and I was quickly drawn to his artwork because of how well the colors he uses really grab your attention. Being a casual fan of anime myself, the anime-inspired looks of many of his art pieces really appeal to me visually as well as (sometimes) emotionally depending on the meaning that he gave to his art or how I personally interpret the art piece.