Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami (村上隆 Murakami Takashi, born 1962) is a Japanese artist. He studied at the National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo.

Related Topics:
1962 - Japanese - National University of Fine Arts and Music

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He is the founder of the Superflat movement, a postmodern art style influenced by anime and manga which comments on otaku culture and lifestyles. His inspiration for starting the movement was in a variety of eccentric Ukiyo-e artists and Yoshinori Kanada's dragon sequence in the anime film Harmagedon (1983).

Related Topics:
Superflat - Postmodern art - Anime - Manga - Otaku - Ukiyo-e - Yoshinori Kanada - Harmagedon - 1983

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His signature and most infamous works are "Hiropon" and "My Lonesome Cowboy". "Hiropon" is a fiberglass sculpture of an anime-style female, taller than average, with gigantic breasts and wearing an undersized bikini top which fails to cover her adequately. A stream of milk, which she is squeezing from her left nipple, wraps behind her to her right hand, resembling a jump-rope. "My Lonesome Cowboy" is a similar of a nude male holding his penis as he ejaculates a stream of semen which he guides with his other hand to swirl upward, resembling a lasso. "Hiropon" prompted Gainax producer Toshio Okada to dub Murakami the "Ota-king" after the character in his own Otaku no Video.

Related Topics:
Fiberglass - Jump-rope - Gainax - Toshio Okada - Otaku no Video

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Murakami typically conscripts artisans whose backgrounds run closer to model and kit-based hobbyists rather than fine-arts craftsmen to design and execute his works. Another "low-art" aspect of Murakami's oeuvre is the decidedly commercial spirit in which his works are presented to the public, as his pieces are sold as mass-produced consumer items.

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