ART-PRESENTATION: Takashi Murakami-From Superflat to Bubblewrap

Takashi Murakami has stated that the artist is someone who understands the borders between worlds and who makes an effort to know them. With his “Superflat” style, which employs refined classical Japanese painting techniques to depict a super-charged mix of Pop, animé and otaku content within a flattened representational picture-plane, he moves freely within an ever-expanding field of aesthetic issues and cultural inspirations. Parallel to utopian and dystopian themes, he recollects and revitalizes narratives of transcendence and enlightenment, often involving outsider-savants.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: STPI Archive

The exhibition “From Superflat to Bubblewrap” at STPI in Singapore explores the dynamic practice of Takashi Murakami, one of the most notable artists emerging from post-war Japan and a palpable force in the world of contemporary art today. The exhibition debuts new works centred around the relationship between his “Superflat” theory and iconography which launched his global career, to a more recent examination of the recessive realism of Japan’s economic bubble crisis, humorously coined “Bubblewrap”. Takashi Murakami studied traditional Japanese painting at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, where he was trained in the school known as Nihonga, a 19th Century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. After completing his studies, he increasingly displayed his works in solo and group exhibitions, making his European debut in 1995 in “Trans Culture”, held at the 46th Venice Biennale. Trained in traditional Japanese art, Murakami saw similarities between the flat composition of Japanese painting and the simplified aesthetics of anime and manga. His style, which emphasized two-dimensional forms and bold, striking imagery, gave birth to an artistic movement known as “Superflat”, which not only acknowledged but glorified the interaction between the commercial and art worlds. By 2005 Murakami had been dubbed the Japanese Andy Warhol and had reached a new level of success in his career as artist, curator, product designer, theorist, and entrepreneur. His first large-scale exhibition in Tokyo after 2001 is hosted at the Mori Art Museum. Drawing on the political, cultural, religious and social history of Japan, Murakami borrows from the Kawaii aesthetic, anime and manga, as well as the old masters of painting and Buddhist iconography. From the atomic bomb to the tsunami and earthquakes, references to the more or less recent traumatisms that have affected his country are omnipresent in his work. Composed of a variety of forms and materials his prolific output is marked by a singular style that masterfully combines traditional pictorial techniques with the very latest technologies. his increasingly complex paintings are filled with characters and scenarios both cute and menacing, saccharine sweet and critically acidic. They are evidence of a conflicted, concerned, and committed commentator on cultural production who recognizes that any effective “hook” is bound to have a sharp point. Throughout his career, and especially over the last ten years, Murakami has combined spectacle with sophistication, transforming the art world while establishing his own reputation within it. The exhibition at STPI is supported by a diverse array of public programmes including an artist talk, panel discussions, film screenings, printmaking workshops and guided tours of both the exhibition and STPI’s Creative Workshop in multiple languages.

Info: STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore, Duration: 12/7-14/9/19, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-19:00, sat 9:00-18:00, www.stpi.com.sg