TAKASHI MURAKAMI @ the gagosian

I liked the chapter about Murakami in Seven Days in the Art World, but I had only seen his more commercial stuff beforehand, such as the Kanye West album cover. I was excited to have the opportunity to see his work in person after reading about his past work. The piece was extremely large taking over nearly a whole wall in the gallery. Its seems that his style has changed dramatically since that article was written, while style keeping with his themes. The work described in the book and the work of his that I had looked at online was unrealistically clean and solid colors which often created a flat surface. I was also happy to see a departure from the hyper sexuality he used in his sculptures simply as a matter of personal taste.

The painting was heavily layered with many competing textures overlapped by dripping paint. The painting was so impressive. It just engulfed you and had so many details and areas of interest. I could've looked at it for an hour. I am also glad to have seen it in person, because the minute details and the vast size would be hard to imagine in a reproduction. I like the mountain of tiny skulls(also a matter of personal taste) and the composite cheshire cat type of animal sitting at top. I was not at all disappointed, but to be honest I had almost expected to see a larger quantity of work (not that I wish there was, because the one was enough) after reading about his assembly line and his work ethic.