al things considered — when i post my masterpiece #800
first posted in facebook february 1, 2020
takashi murakami -- "transcendent attacking a whirlwind" (2017)
"like many other kids, i liked watching anime" ... takashi murakami
"right from the get-go, 'takashi murakami: lineage of eccentrics' is deeply goofy" ... cate mcquaid
"when i was making my debut as an artist, i felt that it was very important that i try to combine the background of my own culture, my people, and the country into the contemporary art world" ... takashi murakami
"a serpentine sea monster coils at the center. water spirals and curls everywhere in paint-spattered white strands over a pulsing, patterned surface. transcendents — superhumans — face the cyclone from either end of the giant painting. one is large, blue, and double-jointed. fierce as they may be, these avenging immortals are overgrown and endearing, painted with affectionate humor. the imagery comes from two works by 18th-century artist soga shohaku. one, shohaku’s 'transcendent and whirlwind' is a screen in the MFA’s collection" ... cate mcquaid
"we want to see the newest things. that is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. it is the moment in which, even if we don't completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. this is what we have come to call art” ... takashi murakami
"when you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums” ... andy warhol
"the theme my generation explored was the relationship between capitalism and art" ... takashi murakami
"inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial" ... bob dylan
"aging is a good thing and a very sad thing. when we go to the museum, almost every one of the artists has died. we’re watching for a message sung from death. but when i was young, i could not imagine this desperation in the museum. it looks like talking with living artists, because painting and sculpture are still alive. but the artists themselves have passed away" ... takashi murakami
"inside the paintings, there is silence up on trial
voices whisper this is what infinity must be like once in a while
but edvard munch's 'the scream' is so silent you can tell by the way she avoids profiles
see the transcendent whirlwind on the screen
where the jolly faces lined up all make the scene
jack in the beanstalk looks hard but can't find ... any beans
let alone find his knees
oh, glasses and phone cameras replace eyes up on the head of the jackass
but these visions ... of murakami ... they make it all seem ... so passe" ... al janik
