Takashi Murakami reimagines art history in his upcoming JAPONISME → Cognitive Revolution: Learning from Hiroshige, staged at Gagosian’s West 21st Street gallery in New York from May 8 through July 12.
On view are 121 new and recent (re)works produced in response to the enduring influence of the ukiyo-e school, particularly Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views for its strength in narrative, style and technique. In a nod to Japonisme – the 19th-century Western fascination with Japanese art – Murakami also re-envisions paintings by European Impressionists and Post-Impressionists who were inspired by the movement through his own eyes, closing the loop on cultural exchange while reclaiming the visual language of pictorial flatness, asymmetrical splendor and blushing colors.
The showcase expands on Murakami’s interest in the copy — a theme recently seen in Japanese Art History à la Takashi Murakami at the gallery’s London outpost. “I’m engaging in an artistic variety of backcrossing,” the artist noted, “the process by which one generation is made by crossing two different varieties, and in subsequent generations, one of the parent varieties is crossed back with the offspring.”
The show will also see new paintings that trace the roots of Louis Vuitton’s iconic logo and checkerboard motif to the Japanese family crest (kamon) and traditional Ichimatsu checkerboard pattern, continuing a dialogue around influence and originality.
Gagosian West 21st Street
522 W 21st St,
New York, NY 10011
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