Murakami's Octopus

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Takashi Murakami exhibit The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is very strange, but I'm glad I saw it. It stays on at the MCA through Sept. 24. As far as I can tell, Chicago is the only US location for this career retrospective. Here and here are a couple of reviews that give some sense of what is covered in the show.

There are a couple of rooms with Murakami's work before he started dabbling in anime-inspired work. This one, inspired by Anselm Kiefer's work, was quite interesting.

Murakami, Nuclear Power Picture, 1988

From that point on, the exhibit turned towards the Mr. Dob mouse character that Murakami created, and it never really left the anime realm after that.  Still some of them were quite cool.

Murakami, And Then, And Then, And Then and Then, And Then (Red), 1996

Murakami, 727, 1996

I wasn't that interested in his flower paintings or his Kanye Bear material. My very favorite piece was this one with a lion and its cubs playing on a bridge of skulls. There is such a weird contrast between the playfulness of the animals and the grotesque skulls, but then also there are wide variations in the background treatments. It is actually a large piece but it is hard to get a sense of the scale.

Murakami, Of Chinese Lions, Peonies, Skulls and Fountains, 2011

.

 
However, this was completely dwarfed by the pieces in the next room -- 100 Arhats and Dragon in Clouds. Both were wall sized and it was pretty much impossible to really take them in due to the scale.

Murakami, Dragon in Clouds--Indigo Blue, 2010

The last room was a new installation: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg.  I did my best to take a selfie in front of a small piece of the exhibit, but there was just too much going on.

It was a very odd show, but I'm glad I stopped in to check it out.