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Born in 1962 in Tokyo, Japan, Takashi Murakami grew up in a family where art played an important role. Murakami wanted to be an artist. He was particularly interested in Japanese animation and comics, and wanted to improve their drawing skills to study at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986 and continued his studies to earn a master's degree and doctorate in 1988 1993rd While searching for his own style in the early 1990s began to study drawing, working in a traditional style, he studied at the university. In the meantime, he became increasingly attracted to the world of manga and anime, and was fascinated by the concept of "kawaii", a Japanese term that roughly means "grace ."
In 1996 he founded a factory Hiropan in Tokyo, with studio partners to produce his work, which later evolved into Kaikai Kiki Co., its great artistic production and art management corporation. In addition to producing and marketing his work, Kaikai Kiki Co. functions as an enabling environment to encourage young Japanese artists. Today it employs more than 100 people in the U.S. and Japan.
Takashi Murakami is popularly known as the next Andy Warhol. As an American pop-art icon, he fuses high and low, he combines art with popular Japanese anime films and manga cartoons. His works are often decorated with smiley faces and flowers. Other recurring characters are his date of birth, and Mr. Pointy, and a few candy colored cartoon like characters with big eyes and exaggerated body parts. Murakami is looking for ways to incorporate the popular trends in their works to create something of lasting value, as explained in an article in 2001, Wired Magazine: "I set out to explore the secrets of the market to survive, the universality of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Sonicjež, Doraemon, Miffy and Hello Kitty. "Murakami aims to create works that appeal to a wider audience than most art.
Murakami methods produce images that have no depth or perspective, the picture seems flat and two-dimensional. Murakami has called this style "superflat" a tribute to the two-dimensional style of Japanese cartoons and calling on high-tech devices like flat-screen televisions and computer monitors.
Murakami gives a clear brand, with its signature round glasses and a thin goatee. He is vigorously, ingeniously self-promotional. In the past few years, Murakami has swept across the U.S. and Europe, receiving fawning media attention and exhibiting at big-name museums (including the Louvre in Paris). In 2003 he teamed up with fashion house Louis Vuitton to create a colorful version of the classic LV monogram on Vuitton handbags. They sold like hot cakes, creating millions of dollars. Some of the works of Murakami are extremely high priced creations intended for galleries or collectors, but also outrageously mass-produced goods such as mugs, mousepads and t-shirts, with the characters he created. Murakami says that art is "more about creating goods and selling them, but the exhibition ."
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