If you are thinking of travelling to Chicago is going to be one of your stops, you can’t miss the retrospective titled Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, presented by Chicago’s MCA.
The exhibition is one of those that attracts and leaves breathless from the beginning to the end even those who are not art lovers. Why? Because the strong colors, the mix between comics, anime, flowers, abstract drawings, and Japanese art create a unique eclecticism worth admiring.
The exhibition features fifty works that span three decades of his career and show his changes and reinventions: from the artist’s use of Japanese history and art, his rediscovery of Buddhist art, his use of comics, his appropriation of both West and East themes, his criticism of capitalism, and then his change to more timeless topics such as faith, religion, life and death.
Besides, the exhibition recalls his collaboration with Louis Vuitton, who called him in 2002 to redesign the accessories of 2002 Spring/Summer season, giving birth to a unique collection of purses featuring the artist’s works. And that’s not all: there is also room for Kanye West’s Graduation album cover, designed by Murakami in 2007, and for the video clip “It Girl”, produced by Takashi for Pharrell Williams in 2014.
The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is the title of the exhibition and it is about a Japanese tale that tells the process of regeneration and change typical of this animal; a process that is similar to that of Murakami’s, who is all the time reinventing himself, changing and experimenting so as t better understand the World and its contemporary influences.
When? Until September 24th, 217
Where? Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, EE.UU.
Time?
Tues 10 am–9 pm
Wed–Thu10 am–5 pm
Fri10 am–9 pm
Sat–Sun10 am–5 pm
Mon Closed
