Takashi Murakami

TAKASHI MURAKAMI (1962-) is a Japanese artist who works with visual art, paintings as well as digital and commercial media. With his colorful paintings and sculptures anchored in manga and anime, Murakami has conquered both the art world and popular culture in the West through a variety of exhibitions – including the Versailles Palace – and through collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Google and the rapper Kanye West. He is also the only visual artist to have secured a spot in Time Magazine’s list “100 Most Influential People” (2008).

Murakami’s fame comes from his new thinking around erasing the boundaries between high and low class art. He acquires popular topics from mass media and popular culture, and then makes them into thirty-foot sculptures, paintings, or commercial goods such as collectibles or phones. In 2008 “My Lonesome Cowboy” an anime-inspired sculpture was sold for the staggering sum of USD13 500 000 at Sotheby’s in New York. At the other end of the scale, the smiling rainbow flower, depicted in several of jis works of art, can be purchased in the form of decorated Vans shoes, teddy bears and a variety of other products for just a couple of dollars.

(source: https://www.fineart.no/kunstner/takashi-murakami)