The phenomenon of Takashi Murakami – global brand recognition, relentless market complicity – is so synonymous with money that it is hard to look at his new show without seeing merchandise before all else. There is a vigilant bodyguard for every two paintings at Gagosian. Enormous, gleaming, teeming “interpretations” of Japanese art, via his trademark combination of eye-popping colours, plus cartoonish figures adapted out of anime and manga, they are among Murakami’s biggest works yet. But what does that title actually mean: what is Murakami making of the history of Japanese art?
His own place in Japanese culture is famous and fixed. He was born in Tokyo in 1962 and his work has literally spawned its own movement, known as Superflat, after the name he coined in 2000. It takes the distinctive “flatness” of Japanese art and forces it hard towards design, deleting perspective, condensing elements of style, addinghis logos of boggling eyes, shiny skulls and smiley sunflowers.
