At the MFA: Takashi Murakami and More

Posted on Author Steven Helferich

I’ve been away from the blog for a month now; holidays and work kept me busy enough. However, I’ve still been taking plenty of photos and today I’ve got a selection from my trip to the MFA in Boston. Sydney and I recently visited the museum as part of our trip out to see family and friends over Christmas and New Years. The main exhibit we went to see was Takashi Murakami, who I’ll confess I knew nothing of before attending the museum, as well as the main exhibits on permanent display. I’d been to the museum a few years prior, but completely forgot how massive it was. Consequently, we had to move pretty quickly through certain sections in order to make to another engagement we had later that evening.

For context, Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist who blends both art and fashion, high and low in his style. Sometime around 2009 he coined the term “superflat”, which he meant to describe the unique style of Japanese art. Many of his pieces on display were modern renditions of older 17th and 18th Century Japanese pieces as well as a few recognizably Japanese pop art murals. Enjoy.

Egyptian fresco of a lion
Lion and bull in combat
Tablet memorializing the life of a certain pharaoh, whose name I’ve forgotten

 

The unrealistic proportions of the head and torso disappear when this statue is viewed from below, as it would have been when originally constructed
As low as I could get, but you can see how the proportions already look better here
Orientalist dresser of European manufacture. European decor was already heavily influenced by East Asian styles as early as the 17th and 18th Centuries
Close-up of one of the dresser’s vignettes
This man found fame on Broadway over the past few years

The following photos in this style were all part of a single 20ft mural

The anime influence is undeniable in this mural

Another classical Japanese-inspired mural. The inspiration can be seen in two images

A 17th Century Japanese print, which serves as inspiration for the Murakami mural
Saw this on the way out, remember these incense holders from Teotihuacan?

 

Thanks for checking these out and keep your eyes open for two more posts in the next few days. I’ve got some photos from the New England Aquarium and from the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.