Takashi Murakami, one of the most celebrated artists of our time, in front of his artwork.
Takashi Murakami emerged in his native Japan in the 1990s, and since the early 2000s, he has experienced a meteoric rise to global stardom. His work is particularly focused on combining high and low forms of art, and on blurring the boundaries between them. He is generally regarded as a pioneer of Japanese contemporary art and one of the most pre-eminent artists of his generation.
Murakami’s undeniable popularity is clearly reflected in monetary terms; his net worth is believed to be about $100,000, and his work is highly-sought after at auction. His prints account for over 80% of his sales, and they generally fetch between £1,000 and £5,000, though many attain higher prices, and they regularly exceed their estimates.
With fame has come a renewed interest in Murakami’s life. Although he is relatively private and rarely speaks about his personal life, it is nevertheless possible to glean some facts. Therefore, below are six things you might not have known about Takashi Murakami.
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He’s Frequently Compared To Warhol
Murakami’s interest in pop culture and the blending of high and low art, as well as his vibrant use of colour and symbols have, inevitably, invited comparisons with Andy Warhol. Even though Murakami has been highly-critical of the Western art market, there is no doubt his own art has been heavily influenced by the American pioneer of Pop Art, and Murakami has even set up a Factory-style studio to produce his pieces.
Murakami once stated: “I have been referred to as the Asian Warhol for some time now.” Since Warhol is synonymous with portraiture, the comparison has led Murakami to tackling the genre so that, in his words, he could build “a career worthy of the moniker.” His experiments in the genre resulted in a print of Karl Lagerfeld, which is his most expensive print to date.
His Most Expensive Print Sold For Nearly £200,000
Murakami’s first experiments in portraiture were for the American fashion magazine, Harpers Bazaar. The artist’s subjects were powerhouses and superstars of fashion, including Marc Jacobs, Donatella Versace, and Karl Lagerfeld. The Lagerfeld serigraph was sold by Sotheby’s in December 2021 at the first of three auctions dealing with the designer’s colossal estate after his death. The silkscreen print (titled Portrait de Karl Lagerfeld) now holds the title of the most expensive Murakami print after it reached £196,555, almost doubling its estimate.
Portrait de Karl Lagerfeld sold by Sotheby’s
He’s Collaborated With Some Famous Names
Murakami has been collaborating with fashion designers, musicians, and others in the entertainment industry ever since the early 2000s, and these have resulted in some of his best-known pieces of art. One of Murakami’s most famous collaborations is with Louis Vuitton, the luxury French fashion house. Together, they’ve created numerous ranges of clothing and accessories, and Murakami has, in turn, incorporated the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram into his artwork with great success (one series of prints titled Louis Vuitton Monogram, for instance, was sold in 2021 for £36,234.)
Murakami’s other collaborations have involved working with Virgil Abloh– founder of fashion label Off-White – to create Flower Belt, a version of which was sold in March 2022 for £199,824. He has also worked with Google, Supreme, Billionaire Boys Club, Damien Hirst, KAWS, and many others. Collaborating on commercial projects plays into Murakami’s deep interest in the nature of art and the fine line between commerce and art, and his designs have, undoubtedly, pervaded every facet of popular culture.
And He’s Created Numerous Album Covers And Music Videos
Perhaps most notably, Murakami designed the cover of American rapper Kanye West’s third studio album, Graduation, which was released in September 2007. The cover art is imbued with Murakami’s typically colourful, cute cartoon characters and slightly dreamlike qualities.
One of Murakami’s other significant musical ventures was to create a video for Billie Eilish’s song, ‘You Should See Me in a Crown’. The anime-style video combined Murakami’s interest in kawaii and nightmarish animation, beginning with a cartoon of Eilish which eventually turns into a horrifying spider-like monster intent on destroying a miniature city.
Kanye West – Graduation Designed By Takashi Murakami
He Founded The Superflat Movement
Murakami published his ‘Superflat’ theory in 2000, and it has informed his art – as well as that of many other artists, including Yoshitomo Nara – ever since. Murakami’s definition of Superflat is loose, but the ideas behind it are complex; essentially, it refers to the traditional 2D nature of Japanese art, but it also comments on postwar Japanese society and consumer culture, and it blurs the boundary between high and low art.
Murakami’s work with Superflat continues to grow and evolve, but his fusion of different styles and influences, as well as his combination of high and low culture, have undoubtedly made him one of the most popular and successful artists alive today.
He Studied Nihonga
Though Murakami is best known for his vibrant, cartoonlike images that are heavily influenced by Pop Art, he actually studied Nihonga, a highly-traditional style of Japanese painting, even going on to earn a Ph.D. in the subject in 1993. However, the artist was always interested in anime and manga, and he slowly grew disillusioned with what he saw as the insular, conservative, rigid nature of Nihonga. Eventually, he rejected it in favour of more contemporary kinds of art, which soon led him to develop his own style.
Traditiona Nahonga: Gaho Hashimoto, Moonlit Landscape, 1889
