Takashi Murakami Japanese, born 1962
Mr. Pointy
2011
Takashi Murakami's 'Pointy Mr.' (a recurring motif in his output, here an acrylic on canvas from the mid-2000s) distils the Japanese artist's 'Superflat' aesthetic: bright primary colours, slick commercial-style finish, and cartoon characters drawn from anime and manga inflated into fine-art scale. The Art Institute of Chicago holds important examples that document Murakami's dialogue between traditional flat Japanese picture-space and global contemporary pop culture.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: Art Institute of Chicago