The first time I saw Murakami’s work in person was at the Broad. Before this, I hadn't thought much of Murakami’s work. I have always been interested in Japanese anime and manga so his work has caught my eye several times, but eventually I thought that his work was very commercialized, uniform and popular just for the sake of being popular. When I saw his paintings in person however, I was in awe at the complexity, the physicality and the painstakingly perfect flatness of each patch of color, which reminded me of traditional Japanese printmaking because it looks very simplified, flat and graphic, yet the process requires a lot of skill and craftsmanship. Murakami has coined the term “superflat”, where forms are flattened in Japanese graphic art, animation and fine arts. The term became a movement that is very influential in Japan but it also reflected Japanese post war culture, which was considered “flat”. I found it interesting that Murakami also studied traditional Japanese painting, Nihonga, and got a PhD in it. His art not only reflects traditional Japanese art but also Japanese post-war culture, something that Murakami pioneered during the 1900s.
I now admire Murakami incorporating his own culture of art into contemporary work. Initially, his art may seem only colorful, cute, and graphic, but I've also come to admire the level of detail and skill he puts into making his art. What really amazed me about Murakami’s work was that each and every piece of his paintings was colorful, complex and immersive. For my final project for this class, I also want to create a similar colorful, complex and immersive world.
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