Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.32728/tab.16.2019.11
The influence of Japanese visual arts and cultural tradition on Takashi Murakami’s artistic expression
Stefani Silli
Abstract
In the 1990s contemporary artist Takashi Murakami asserted himself as one of the most challenging and influential Japanese artists of his time. His artistic persona has gained a massive popularity and following outside of his homeland. Known as an innovator of contemporary Japanese art, he has succeeded in changing the definition and meaning of art in Japan. Furthermore, he has placed the aesthetics and sensibility of Japanese art in the global art market as a response to the current conditions and tendencies of the postmodern age. He has named this new artistic condition/ movement Superflat. Murakami presented Superflat as a combination of high art and pop culture; as a research of culturally and socially defined interpretations of art in Japan that need to be reevaluated and redefined. His works are a rich amalgam of symbols and meanings which provide us with a deep insight into traditional and modern Japanese art history and culture. In the following paper I will first briefly present the life of Takashi Murakami and his key artworks. I will then elaborate on the stylistic characteristics of certain art schools, movements and artists from different periods of Japanese history. Furthermore, I will trace and analyze these same formal artistic characteristics by contrasting and comparing Murakami’s artwork with the artwork of his predecessors. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and determine the scope and importance of the influence that Murakami’s artistic predecessors have had on the development of his artistic identity and expression.
Keywords
Takashi Murakami; Japanese art; superflat; otaku; pop culture
Hrčak ID:
228773
URI
Publication date:
29.11.2019.
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