Takashi Murakami has become a household name. He’s one of today’s biggest contemporary artists and has found success in high art by incorporating what has long been considered low culture, maintaining a balance of intellectual complexity in his works with visuals pulling from otaku culture, a culture of passion for anime and manga. He succeeds most in popular culture in providing accessibility to these low forms of culture and to his own work among mass markets.
One of his most successful pieces in these realms is the album cover he created for Kanye West’s Graduation, which explores themes of student life and life after fame. The content of the album cover itself plays off the dreaminess and idealization within these themes. The vivid colors and animated composition inspired by anime and manga draw us in by evoking our youthful optimism and shared experience of transitional period chaos.
Murakami began his art career as a traditionalist, working in Nihonga, a painting style following traditional Japanese artistic conventions and aesthetic preferences from Western art. He became disillusioned with its complacency and Western focus, and he responded by experimenting with contemporary art and setting out to find the “secret of market survivability - the universality of characters" (Howe, 2003). He was therefore interested in the lasting prevalence of otaku culture, tying it inextricably to his style. He has since received high acclaim in high contemporary art spheres and attained this “market survivability” with enduring characters like Mr. DOB.
The style of the album cover and his other work relies on “Superflat,” the postmodern art movement he founded that is heavily influenced by otaku culture. He comes full circle, taking inspiration from low culture into high art spaces, and bringing his success back to pop culture with this project. He operates under the postmodern culture definition put forth by Storey (2009) as “a culture which no longer recognizes the distinction between high and popular culture” (p. 13). His heritage has especially informed this perspective, as he references that, "The Japanese don't really have a difference or hierarchy between high and low" (Adam, 2003). Given his success in high art spheres, his work rejecting such hierarchy contributes to diminishing this discrepancy that is prevalent in Western culture and that attempts to discount anime and manga as lower than other media.
The commercial nature of Murakami’s work is also a key characteristic and goal of his distinct style. The idea of market survivability is such a driving force, that I would argue that Murakami’s postmodern art represents the “final victory of commerce over culture” (Storey, 2009, p. 13). The gap between high and low culture for Murakami is closing because he recognizes survival in the mass market as his ultimate end. Furthermore, we see Murakami’s art as a part of “hopelessly commercial culture. It is mass produced for mass consumption. Its audience is a mass of non-discriminating consumers. The culture itself is formulaic, manipulative” (p. 8). He celebrates commerce with his work, aiming to flood the market with market-surviving merchandise—from paintings to designer handbags to plastic figurines—at various price levels, to maintain a sense of wide-reaching accessibility that lends itself to mindless consumption. Murakami has reached these mass markets through Graduation’s success, as his work with Kanye and sale of cheap merchandise make him accessible to the general public. In this way, Murakami also succeeds in his goal of more broadly bridging cultures—high and low, East and West.
Art medium plays a crucial role in his accessibility, as well. He digitally paints many of his works to be disseminated digitally and as physical merchandise. Benjamin (1936) would, however, question the authenticity of his art, particularly in its widely accessible forms. Technology has fundamentally reshaped art in two ways: “process reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction” in augmentation, and “technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself” in distribution (p. 50). How can I be sure that the smiling flower figurine on my desk represents the same intellectual intentions Murakami had while conceptualizing it? At the same time, the fact that I have this absurdly happy character in my possession demonstrates Murakami’s blurring of lines between high and low culture and celebration of commerce and culturally integrated markets.
There is also the question of aura, which I would argue has evolved in today’s digital landscape. Graduation had no original physical aura, or “The here and now of the artwork—its unique existence in a particular place” (Benjamin, 1936, p. 51). Benjamin argues that the rise of technology and mechanical reproduction has stripped away the role of this physical, environmental aura in art. However, I find that Murakami’s art as a digital painting and its distribution reliant on the album itself have forced the concept of aura to evolve. It relies on the album’s music to generate context rather than physical existence in a particular place. There is no domain of tradition, but the digital space and nature of listening become the aura and new digital traditions emerge. Benjamin also never got the chance to encounter many of the new forms of art, so does not consider artists like Murakami who create their works digitally and require mechanical reproduction to reach an audience at all. Would digital art, then, be complete removal from aura? Does an artwork’s physical aura—the value of which may be rooted in classist ideas of who has the resources to access art—trump the widespread availability of that artwork?
Ultimately, Murakami’s incorporation of the historically low culture of cartoons and anime into his highly successful contemporary artwork bridges the gap between high and low culture and celebrates its subsequent commercialization. There remain questions about his Graduation album cover’s authenticity given its inevitable fall to the commercial and its reshaping of the aura. But in the words of Murakami, perhaps we’re being swept up in “the tornado that spins with the zeitgeist” of new times (“Sound & Vision: Kanye West's ‘Graduation’ by Takashi Murakami”, 2019).
References
Adam, J. P. (2018, March 08). High and Low: Enduring Influence of Japanese Anime in Contemporary Art. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/high-low-enduring-influence-japanese-anime-art-jenny-park-adam/
Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Visual Culture: Experiences in Visual Culture.
Howe, J. (2003, November 01). The Two Faces of Takashi Murakami. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2003/11/artist/
One of his most successful pieces in these realms is the album cover he created for Kanye West’s Graduation, which explores themes of student life and life after fame. The content of the album cover itself plays off the dreaminess and idealization within these themes. The vivid colors and animated composition inspired by anime and manga draw us in by evoking our youthful optimism and shared experience of transitional period chaos.
Murakami began his art career as a traditionalist, working in Nihonga, a painting style following traditional Japanese artistic conventions and aesthetic preferences from Western art. He became disillusioned with its complacency and Western focus, and he responded by experimenting with contemporary art and setting out to find the “secret of market survivability - the universality of characters" (Howe, 2003). He was therefore interested in the lasting prevalence of otaku culture, tying it inextricably to his style. He has since received high acclaim in high contemporary art spheres and attained this “market survivability” with enduring characters like Mr. DOB.
The style of the album cover and his other work relies on “Superflat,” the postmodern art movement he founded that is heavily influenced by otaku culture. He comes full circle, taking inspiration from low culture into high art spaces, and bringing his success back to pop culture with this project. He operates under the postmodern culture definition put forth by Storey (2009) as “a culture which no longer recognizes the distinction between high and popular culture” (p. 13). His heritage has especially informed this perspective, as he references that, "The Japanese don't really have a difference or hierarchy between high and low" (Adam, 2003). Given his success in high art spheres, his work rejecting such hierarchy contributes to diminishing this discrepancy that is prevalent in Western culture and that attempts to discount anime and manga as lower than other media.
The commercial nature of Murakami’s work is also a key characteristic and goal of his distinct style. The idea of market survivability is such a driving force, that I would argue that Murakami’s postmodern art represents the “final victory of commerce over culture” (Storey, 2009, p. 13). The gap between high and low culture for Murakami is closing because he recognizes survival in the mass market as his ultimate end. Furthermore, we see Murakami’s art as a part of “hopelessly commercial culture. It is mass produced for mass consumption. Its audience is a mass of non-discriminating consumers. The culture itself is formulaic, manipulative” (p. 8). He celebrates commerce with his work, aiming to flood the market with market-surviving merchandise—from paintings to designer handbags to plastic figurines—at various price levels, to maintain a sense of wide-reaching accessibility that lends itself to mindless consumption. Murakami has reached these mass markets through Graduation’s success, as his work with Kanye and sale of cheap merchandise make him accessible to the general public. In this way, Murakami also succeeds in his goal of more broadly bridging cultures—high and low, East and West.
Art medium plays a crucial role in his accessibility, as well. He digitally paints many of his works to be disseminated digitally and as physical merchandise. Benjamin (1936) would, however, question the authenticity of his art, particularly in its widely accessible forms. Technology has fundamentally reshaped art in two ways: “process reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction” in augmentation, and “technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself” in distribution (p. 50). How can I be sure that the smiling flower figurine on my desk represents the same intellectual intentions Murakami had while conceptualizing it? At the same time, the fact that I have this absurdly happy character in my possession demonstrates Murakami’s blurring of lines between high and low culture and celebration of commerce and culturally integrated markets.
There is also the question of aura, which I would argue has evolved in today’s digital landscape. Graduation had no original physical aura, or “The here and now of the artwork—its unique existence in a particular place” (Benjamin, 1936, p. 51). Benjamin argues that the rise of technology and mechanical reproduction has stripped away the role of this physical, environmental aura in art. However, I find that Murakami’s art as a digital painting and its distribution reliant on the album itself have forced the concept of aura to evolve. It relies on the album’s music to generate context rather than physical existence in a particular place. There is no domain of tradition, but the digital space and nature of listening become the aura and new digital traditions emerge. Benjamin also never got the chance to encounter many of the new forms of art, so does not consider artists like Murakami who create their works digitally and require mechanical reproduction to reach an audience at all. Would digital art, then, be complete removal from aura? Does an artwork’s physical aura—the value of which may be rooted in classist ideas of who has the resources to access art—trump the widespread availability of that artwork?
Ultimately, Murakami’s incorporation of the historically low culture of cartoons and anime into his highly successful contemporary artwork bridges the gap between high and low culture and celebrates its subsequent commercialization. There remain questions about his Graduation album cover’s authenticity given its inevitable fall to the commercial and its reshaping of the aura. But in the words of Murakami, perhaps we’re being swept up in “the tornado that spins with the zeitgeist” of new times (“Sound & Vision: Kanye West's ‘Graduation’ by Takashi Murakami”, 2019).
References
Adam, J. P. (2018, March 08). High and Low: Enduring Influence of Japanese Anime in Contemporary Art. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/high-low-enduring-influence-japanese-anime-art-jenny-park-adam/
Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Visual Culture: Experiences in Visual Culture.
Howe, J. (2003, November 01). The Two Faces of Takashi Murakami. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2003/11/artist/
Sound & Vision: Kanye West's "Graduation" by Takashi Murakami. (2019, August 25). Retrieved from https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/music/sound-vision-kanye-west-s-graduation-by-takashi-murakami/
Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp. 1-16.
Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp. 1-16.
Hi Juliana! I like your ideas very much. You did such a great job in elaborating the conflict between the commercialization and the authenticity of an art. Your blog confirms the opinion that by transforming his art into a “mass culture,” Murakami makes his work more approachable and profitable. But interestingly, this blog objects to agree on that this commercial culture is “hopeless.” You acknowledge Benjamin’s opinion that mechanical reproduction is physically altering the content of the art, but you don’t think this process necessarily reduces the authenticity and the aura of postmodern art. You argue that since Murakami’s digital art is born to be on the Internet, it is free from traditional boundaries of space and time. Technology brings this unprecedented art form which may revolutionize our perception of art. I find this opinion very critical and debatable. These original thoughts are rather appreciable.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you chooses a comparatively ambivalent way to define pop culture as postmodern culture, which can be very challenging. Your blog explains the high culture that Murakami used to pursue by briefly describing his past experience as a traditionalist, which is a perfect place to start with. I just hope that I can see more details about his transition to pursue “market survivability.” This blog carefully elaborates how in general Murakami’s art accords with the definition of postmodern culture. But I think more analysis of how specific details in his art works, such as the album cover that he cooperates with Kanye, represents the closing gap between high culture and pop culture will make the demonstration more vivid. Anyway, I really like the original ideas in this blog, and more details can make it even more perfect.
From Chenxi Shi