Last month I shot the Whitney Biennial for The Wall Street Journal. Expansive, diverse, thought-provoking…much of what you would hope at that level. I’m not all that in-tune with what’s going on critically in the modern art scene; I explore the visual impact first, then maybe probe deeper into context and meaning. On assignment again for The Journal, the new Murakami exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum was a visual delight of fantasy. Since I was primarily focused on how to best shoot the magnitude of his paintings and sculptures, I overlooked their meaning, apart from a few sound bites I digested from the exhibition’s curator about Murakami’s “superflat” technique while he lead a small group through the space. There’s a lot to uncover, but the strength of his work relies on surreal color, pop culture, and vivid imagination. Murakami’s creations expand to wallpapers, floor design, animations, as well as painted walls in the museum’s stairwells. A shop of Louis Vuitton handbags and accessories also bear his designs. You can’t help feel that you’ve stepped into his universe.
Paul Schimmel from the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art has curated the exhibition which travels next to the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and then to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The exhibition runs through July 13, 2008 at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Journal ran a piece in their Weekend Adviser section where some of my images were included in a slideshow. The print version featured a black and white shot of Murakami’s DOB’s March, 1995.
I shot exclusively with the Nikon 20mm/2.8 on a tripod. This lens performs best from f5 to f8. In post, it needs a bit of distortion correction along with the occasional perspective error fixing.
Flower Matango (b), 2001-6 by Takashi Murakami. Fiberglass, resin, oil paint, lacquer, acrylic plates,
and iron. At the Brooklyn Museum, April 2008.
(At left) Kai Kai, 2000. Oil paint, acrylic, synthetic resins, fiberglass, and iron; (center) Time Bokan–
black, 2001. Acrylic on canvas mounted on board; (at right) Kiki, 2000. Oil paint, acrylic, synthetic
resins, fiberglass, and iron. Exhibition by Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum.
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