{"id":290361,"date":"2026-02-18T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290361\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:59:11","slug":"takashi-murakamis-new-show-at-perrotin-l-a-was-inspired-by-monet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290361\/","title":{"rendered":"Takashi Murakami’s new show at Perrotin L.A. was inspired by Monet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Takashi Murakami felt like he was losing his way. His generation of artists, he thought, was increasingly untethered from a concrete movement or theme. \u201cThe art had become more and more about a struggle against the market or within the market,\u201d he says through a translator during a recent interview at Perrotin Los Angeles on the afternoon of the opening of his new show, \u201cHark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme\u2019s Genesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featuring 24 new paintings, the show explores how the Impressionists were influenced by the Japanese genre of ukiyo-e, which translates to \u201cfloating world pictures,\u201d and references Japanese woodblock prints and paintings made during the Edo period (between 1615\u20131867). The colorful artworks largely depict the sensual hedonistic lifestyles of city dwellers including merchants, courtesans and kabuki actors. <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n

Dressed in patchwork jeans, a faded denim jacket and a white long sleeve shirt, Murakami reveals how a recent trip to Claude Monet\u2019s house and gardens in Giverny, France, cemented his understanding of the fundamental connections between genres.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to [Monet\u2019s] garden for inspiration and I thought, \u2018OK, we can do anything,\u2019\u201d Murakami says, adding that contemplating the Impressionist legend\u2019s unconventional world helped him to become unstuck.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Takashi Murakami\u2019s take on Kitagawa Utamaro\u2019s \u201cFlowers of Yoshiwara\u201d Dogs and Cats Intoxicated by Cherry Blossoms; Superflat, 2025 – 2026, acrylic, gold leaf and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on aluminum frame 92 1\/2 x 127 9\/16 inches (4 panels).<\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times \/ Artwork by Takashi Murakami \/ Kaikai Kiki Co.)<\/p>\n

Murakami is known for eschewing the walls that separate Eastern art from Western art. Superflat, the movement he founded, blends traditional Japanese art with pop culture and anime. As one of the world\u2019s most famous contemporary artists, Murakami is a polarizing figure in his home country of Japan, where older manga and anime fans thought he was appropriating anime culture for the art world, and sometimes viewed his lucrative collaborations with brands like Louis Vuitton and Crocs as a form of selling out. <\/p>\n

Forgoing his translator, Murakami said that while certain factions of Japanese society still don\u2019t approve of his practice, \u201cstep by step, the younger generation is understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

A pop-up store at Perrotin Los Angeles features a wide variety of Murakami merchandise. <\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

A wave of art based on anime characters and manga motifs swelled in the wake of Murakami\u2019s success, along with that of Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara \u2014 but that trend only served to unmoor Murakami from his roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they paint something like that visually, then they would kind of have a certain level of success,\u201d Murakami said as an assistant brought him sandals to replace his work boots. \u201cSo there was a feeling in the air where you don\u2019t have to talk about Pop Art, Simulationism or all these isms and movements, and it\u2019s actually better not to talk about those things. And so I myself felt like I started to lose sight of themes and had nothing really concrete to pursue as a theme for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Takashi <\/p>\n

Takashi Murakami is known for breaking down barriers between Eastern and Western art. His latest show at Perrotin Los Angeles explores the link between the Japanese genre of ukiyo-e and Impressionism.<\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

At the time, the 64-year-old artist was in the midst of reinterpreting the work of 19th century ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige for a show that opened at Gagosian New York in May of last year. That show also explored the art of Van Gogh, Monet and Whistler, Impressionist artists deeply influenced by Japanese prints, as expressed by the French term Japonisme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to make sense of how this might be received by the audience and was a little bit worried, so I wanted to come up with more of a concrete theory,\u201d Murakami said. <\/p>\n

He turned to Ed Schad, a curator at the Broad, for help sorting out his thinking about the Japonisme influence.<\/p>\n

Schad pointed him in the direction of Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, who created a diagram in the 1930s that traced the lineage<\/a> of every genre of art from 1890 on \u2014 Synthetism, Neo-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Abstract \u2014 back to Japanese prints. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo that meant ukiyo-e had influenced all these Western art movements to the point that it destroyed art, really,\u201d Murakami said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Takashi Murakami\u2019s reinterpretation of Kitagawa Utamaro\u2019s \u201cYamauba and Kintaro, Holding a Chestnut Branch\u201d; Superflat, 2025, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas mounted on aluminum frame 47 1\/4 x 20 15\/16 inches.<\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times \/ Artwork by Takashi Murakami \/ Kaikai Kiki Co.)<\/p>\n

Murakami\u2019s interest in this history took on added contours when he began watching \u201cSh\u014dgun,\u201d the 2024 FX historical drama that unfolds in 1600 at the start of the Tokugawa era \u2014 during a time of brutal civil war and epic power struggles. He was struck by how intertwined art and architecture were in the series, and also the way it treated the Japanese sense of life and death \u2014 and how death was colored by art.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time samurai would commit the ritual suicide of seppuku, they would first read the death poem they had prepared in order to summarize their life and make sense of it,\u201d Murakami said.<\/p>\n

The samurai worldview, thrown into relief by \u201cSh\u014dgun,\u201d highlighted the warrior\u2019s ideas \u201cabout what is just, what is correct and how they should live,\u201d said Murakami. \u201cSo that really influenced me and I became interested in this very chaotic time before Japan was completely unified \u2014 and so that chaotic uncertainty and anxiety about it became my new theme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result of Murakami\u2019s thinking about the cyclical, interrelated influence of art upon itself in different historical eras, spanning east to west and back again, can be seen on the white walls at Perrotin. One room contains four giant paneled canvases measuring more than 10-by-7 feet, with Murakami\u2019s interpretations of work by the ukiyo-e masters Kitagawa Utamaro and Torii Kiyonaga.<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Two large paintings are on the wall at Perrotin Los Angeles as part of Takashi Murakami\u2019s new show, \u201cHark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme\u2019s Genesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

A second room contains Murakami\u2019s take on Monet\u2019s \u201cWoman with a Parasol,\u201d which is on display between two classic Murakami canvases inspired by it, one featuring a doe-eyed anime style girl, the other with one of Murakami\u2019s signature smiling flowers sitting on a hill and staring wistfully at the cloudy sky.<\/p>\n

Additional pieces contain Murakami\u2019s reimaginings of gilded floral motifs by Katsushika Hokusai, Ogata Korin and Ogata Kenzan; as well as the beautiful women rendered by Kikukawa Eizan.<\/p>\n

Murakami gestures to the walls before him, nodding his head sagely.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is in the melting pot,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the COVID-19 pandemic, Takashi Murakami felt like he was losing his way. His generation of artists, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[23303,1228,442,498,499,500,161021,634,501,156,161018,45219,161015,161016,111,139,69,161019,39023,32740,2044,161020,13558,161017],"class_list":{"0":"post-290361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-anime","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-artsdesign","14":"tag-concrete-movement","15":"tag-death","16":"tag-design","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-japanese-genre","19":"tag-monet","20":"tag-murakami","21":"tag-new-show","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-reference-japanese-woodblock-print","26":"tag-sense","27":"tag-theme","28":"tag-time","29":"tag-ukiyo-e","30":"tag-wall","31":"tag-work-boot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}