How much are original Takashi Murakami sculptures worth?
Takashi Murakami is still a relatively young artist, but his paintings have more than proven their worth at auction. On the high end, a Murakami piece can sell for millions of dollars. For lesser pieces and reproductions, a Murakami piece can sell for just a few hundred dollars. This represents a significant opportunity for the savvy art collector. The most ever paid for a Murakami sculpture at auction is $15,161,000 for the piece MY LONESOME COWBOY (1998) on May 14th, 2008.
Who is Takashi Murakami?
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist whose work often follows in the pop and Japanese animation styles in which it is grounded. Murakami’s work has been featured in some of the most unusual spaces in the world. In 2010 a retrospective of his work appeared in the Chateau de Versailles, the opulent palace that once housed French monarchy. The exhibition, “Murakami Versaille” featured fiberglass sculptures of colorful manga-esque characters. His series “Wink,” comprised of inflatable sculptures, was featured in New York City’s Grand Central Station. In 2009 he collaborated with acclaimed producer Pharrell and jewelry connoisseur Jacob the Jeweler on a sculpture called “The Simple Things” that was made out of 26,000 diamonds and gems and featured household items such as a Pepsi can and cupcake that is indigenous to contemporary American culture.
How did Takashi Murakami get started?
Born in Tokyo in 1962, Takashi Murakami was relatively late in his start as an artist. His first solo exhibition, “Takashi, Tamiya” in 1991 wasn’t until the artist was nearly 30 years old. The following year he was invited to study at the P.S.1 International Studio Program by the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cultural Council in New York City. He would return to Japan as a changed artist. In 1995 he started HIRPON FACTORY, a production studio that would produce his own work as well as a place for younger artists to develop and learn. He joined the UCLA art dept in 1998 as a guest professor.
What is Takashi Murakami famous for?
Takashi Murakami is a multitalented Japanese artist whose colorful, modern and manga-inspired aesthetic has led some to call him “the Andy Warhol of Japan.” Over the course of his dynamic career, Murakami has been a sculptor, animator, painter, commercial artist, and even art theorist. He pioneered the post-modern artistic concept known as the “super flat” concept, the idea that the flatness of two-dimensional traditional Japanese art extends conceptually to the continuity between high and low art in Japan and visually to the two-dimensional aesthetic seen in contemporary and commercial Japanese art. Though he is considered a pop artist, Murakami insists that he isn’t one, pushing against attempts to categorize his art. He told the Journal of Contemporary Art that “[his] art is not Pop art. It is a record of the struggle of the discriminated people.”
What kind of art does Takashi Murakami make?
Takashi Murakami makes pop art inspired by traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. It often features characters that are most closely associated with anime, the Japanese animation technique. He creates models of life-sized cyborgs, monsters, and other hypersexualized comic characters. This has made his work popular in both the East and the West, as anime has continued to gain popularity in places like the United States. His work has been exhibited everywhere, the MoMA, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and many other prestigious institutions.