In the central gallery stood the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. In place of his usual garb — baggy cargo pants, T-shirt and sneakers — he was done up in a traditional hakama, his hair pulled back in a neat bun, with his signature round glasses and wispy goatee. The guests — Nancy Spector, the chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Vincent Fremont, a sales agent for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; his wife, Shelly Dunn Fremont, an art director; and Kazuhito Yoshii, owner of the Yoshii Gallery in Manhattan — were the first to participate in a three-day series of tea ceremonies. Sitting around the low L-shaped wooden table, they listened intently as So-oku Sen, a tea master from a 400-year-old school in Kyoto, explained the ritual with the help of Linda Hoaglund, a translator. Popularly known as the Warhol of Japan, Mr. Murakami, 45, merges fine art with popular Japanese anime films and manga cartoons. He has invented characters including DOB and Mr. Pointy, which he has used as the subjects of paintings, sculptures and giant balloons, and is also known for his smiley-faced flowers and colorful mushrooms. His work has adorned New York City landmarks like Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. Among the works in his exhibition are several three-panel paintings, nearly 8 feet wide and 9 feet tall, of a fierce-looking Daruma, each signed in the traditional Japanese manner, in Japanese characters down one side, and each with a different background, ranging from platinum and gold leaf to black glitter.
I fell as though that Takashi Murakami has done alot in his time. Especially, with the combinaion of Japanese anime films and manga cartoons would look very interesting because i too like the Japanimation.
-Sabrina Coulter
Labels: Interesting Combination Paintings and Art