Catalog of an exhibition held at the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, June 6-September 24, 2017, Vancouver Art Gallery, February 3-May 6, 2018, and Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, June 6-September 16, 2018.--Colophon
The book was purchased through the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
Contents:
Note to the reader -- Glossary of terms -- Foreword / Madeleine Grynsztejn -- Doomed to survive / Michael Darling -- The total work of art : Takashi Murakami and Nihonga / Chelsea Foxwell -- Plates I: Early works -- The bubble goes pop : Takashi Murakami and the early days of Tokyo neo-pop / Reuben Keehan -- Plates II: Superflat -- Murakami's monsters and the art of allusion / Michael Dylan Foster -- Plates III: The studio -- Super/flatline : Takashi Murakami's anime/n / Akira Mizuta Lippit -- Plates IV: Recent works -- The central dogma of art / Takashi Murakami -- Biography, exhibitions, and publications -- Exhibition checklist
Summary:
The first major U.S. monograph in ten years on Murakami is the definitive survey of the paintings of one of today's most influential artists. Takashi Murakami (born 1962), one of contemporary art's most widely recognized exponents, receives a long-awaited critical consideration in this important volume. Accompanying the first retrospective exhibition devoted solely to Murakami's paintings, this book traces Murakami's career from his earliest training to his current studio practice. Where other books address the commercial aspects of Murakami's work, this is the first serious survey of his work as a painter. Through essays and illustrations many previously unpublished it explores the artist's relationship to the tradition of Japanese painting and his facility in straddling high and low, ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, commercial and high art. New texts address Murakami's output in the context of postwar Japan, situating the artist in relation to folklore, traditional Japanese painting, the Tokyo art scene in the 1980s and 1990s, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. This richly illustrated volume also includes a detailed biography and exhibition history
