Sugimoto68
At some point a Murakami collector will start comparing prints and suddenly realize something strange––the signatures don’t match! Murakami’s signature evolves from a legible printed scrawl to the now ubiquitous opaque loops. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but what about Murakami’s John Hancock? With the (de)evolution of his signature you …
So you’ve opened up your new Murakami to find a pleasant surprise, Japanese characters! The text adds a nice nuance to a Murakami print; however, there will come the day when someone admiring your print suddenly asks you what the writing means! You could just make something up, but now Sugimoto68 brings an alternative–a translation …
In 2005 as I happily examined my Murakami Skulls Rock print, I noticed an interesting detail. In contrast to the ubiquitous, blissfully happy Murakami flowers, there appeared a crying flower! Apparently a great novelty at the time, but over the years the weeping flower has appeared again and again in the works of Murakami. Various …
Continue reading “No Flower, No Cry – The Murakami weeping flower prints”
What is red and pink and green and yellow and gold (leaf) and platinum and has ears and eyes and teeth all over? Why, the Murakami print collection, of course! Murakami has a big reputation for unleashing and moving multi-million dollar art pieces; however, he has always maintained a soft spot for prints. His fixation …
Murakami rose to fame on the coattails of Japan pop culture, but we also know that he developed his artistic roots through the study of Nihonga 日本画 or Japanese traditional aesthetic painting. His earliest prints such as the Hokusai inspired Manji Fuji 卍富士 (2001) (pictured above) incorporated stylized Japanese characters, but he did not revisit …
Continue reading “What does the Murakami say? #1: Reading your Murakami Poka Poka Warm and Sunny!”