Takashi Murakami - Fort Worth Modern

above: Takashi Murakami Flower Matango (d), 2009 Oil paint, acrylic, fiberglass and iron Overall: 124 × 103 9/16 × 80 1/2 in. (315 × 263 × 204.4 cm) ©2009 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin

Takashi Murakami Cosmos, 2003 Hand silk-screened wallpaper Dimensions variable Sheet: 45 1/4 × 60 1/4 in. (114.94 × 153.04 cm), twenty sheet set ©2003 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. (Background Wallpaper)

I went into the Fort Worth Modern with low expectations. Just like the KAWS show which ended last January, the Takashi Murakami exhibition is all about selling a lot of tickets. Splashy colors, outrageous garishness, and meticulous fabrication are some of the thoughts that came to mind when walking around this major retrospective. Thankfully this was a retrospective, so the substance of this sprawling exhibition came into focus. So, if the glam and glitz didn’t appeal to you, at least some of the narrative of this artist’s life was an interesting read as you walked around the museum.

Murakami is yet another from the generation of Pop artists which has not diminished in popularity since its invention in the late 1950’s. From the story of Murakami’s early work, it appears the seed of his particular brand of Pop is a reaction to the international conceptual art and On Kawara in particular. On Kawara created date paintings. He would make a painting with the date in the center and if he finished it he would keep it, but if he didn’t finish the painting on that day then he would discard it. His work is all about time. It seems that Murakami saw the work as bland, so what better way to squash the bland than use the art of Japanese culture, manga. I found it interesting that a whole art movement known as the Superflat artists emerged around the time his work was getting notoriety.

Murakami might have featured Japanese cartoon and pop culture as a rejection to Western-style Pop art, but in the end, I just see more of a return to Disney style pop. Murakami has his own cartoon mouse-like character and most of his sculptures look like something you might find on a ride at an amusement park. Sure the cartoon style is different, but some of the execution feels oddly familiar. Though some sculptures are a little too adult for Disney, even these sculptures don’t have a great deal of punchiness to them. Murakami critique of Disney isn’t shallow and obvious. He is far more clever than Banksy and Paul McCarthy. Although as clever as Murakami’s sculptures are, these work really only appeal to an adolescent sensibility.

I can not deny the surface of his all his paintings are incredibly made. His art direction has to lead to some impressively produced paintings with could not have been made without a team of experts. Those surfaces defy you to find a flaw. It all looks machine produced, yet I know that his workshops make them by hand with all the tools in the world at their disposal. I admit that many of his paintings kept my attention. I was seduced into standing there in awe of the craftsmanship. Sometimes even the images kept my attention. He had a few abstract works with no subject that caught my eye. A few of the paintings use skulls as a background and gave his work a little more weight. Sure the retrospective was mostly flashy and bright, but a subtle dark undercurrent seemed to seep into some of the paintings.

The Fort Worth Modern presentation of Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg through September 16th.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI – Fort Worth Modern