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Takashi Murakami
Homage to Francis Bacon (Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne, moiré)
2016

Name: Homage to Francis Bacon (Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne, moiré)
Brand: Takashi Murakami
Price: 4925 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Homage to Francis Bacon (Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne, moiré) is an offset lithograph, 19.5 x 19.5" image size, signed and numbered lower right, and framed in a contemporary, silver-tone moulding. From the edition of 300, numbered 33/300. Regarding Murakami’s longtime fascination with Francis Bacon, Murakami was struck by “the way Bacon would distort human faces in his paintings. Murakami compared the process to the way a plug-in for a computer might morph a face in a certain way in Photoshop. “I really think about how Bacon might have transformed a face, and the methodology and the form of it, and that’s how I’ve been trying to do the same kind of transformation using Bacon’s style,” he said.” (Ann Binlot, “Takashi Murakami Talks Instagram Exposure for Emerging Artists, Francis Bacon, and Virgil Abloh,” Forbes, 11 June 2018. During the 20th century, both Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer were close companions to the British artist Francis Bacon. Rawsthorne frequently associated with an elite milieu of artists during her generation, while Dyer entered a tumultuous relationship with Bacon and was often portrayed in the artist’s paintings. In Murakami’s Study of Isabel Rawsthorne and Study of George Dyer we find his quintessential use of the Superflat method combined with an adaptation of Western iconography. In addition to the wildly distorted faces in Murakami’s particular style of metamorphosis – mushroom-like, psychedelic in shape and colors - the artist also adds an interesting element uniquely his own – the extended tongues reaching out towards miniature floating DOB figures. Murakami stated that he was attracted years ago to Japanese sculptures showing figures emerging from mouths, possibly referring to the sculptures of the itinerant Buddhist monk Kūya. With this element, we sense Murakami’s focus on the power of voice, communication, and sound, and portraying that in the visual medium.

Creator:

Takashi Murakami (1963, Japanese)

Creation Year:

2016

Dimensions:

Height: 33.25 in (84.46 cm)Width: 33.25 in (84.46 cm)

Medium:

Offset,Paper

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Greenwich, CT

Reference Number:

Seller: 1241stDibs: LU2664213306412

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Shop All Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami

Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami may be famous among collectors for the psychedelic flowers and chaotic cartoons that populate his prints and paintings, but artists likely know him as the theorist behind the contemporary art movement he calls “Superflat.”

Partially inspired by the Pop art of Andy Warhol, in which celebrity culture and mundane mass-produced items became the focus of bright and colorful works that both celebrated and criticized consumerism, Murakami’s Superflat encompasses painting, sculpture, digital design and more to present a subversive look at consumerism but is also an effort to blend fine art and lowbrow culture.

A multifaceted and remarkably influential artist as well as a compulsive art collector, Murakami has collaborated with brands such as Louis Vuitton, while one of his most famous Superflat works is the teddy bear on the cover of the Graduation album by American rapper Kanye West.

In 1993 Murakami earned his Ph.D. from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he was trained in nihonga, a style of painting that originated in the late 19th century by artists who worked to preserve and promote the conventions and processes associated with traditional Japanese art. While practicing nihonga, Murakami began to realize that his beliefs didn’t align with the tradition, so his art subsequently took on a satirical feel that embodied a critique of the movement. Before long, his style took a drastic turn, embracing otaku, a rising postwar cultural phenomenon among Japan’s younger crowd who loved anime and manga. (Otaku is also integral to Superflat.)

This is when Murakami’s most well-known character, Mr. DOB, was born. This anime-inspired icon, which Americans might interpret as a cross between Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat given its pronounced ears and broad and menacing grin, was part of the artist’s endeavor to elevate the otaku subculture but also to target mass consumerism. While Murakami conceived of Mr. DOB years ahead of his 2000-era Superflat theory, there is much common ground between the two. Not unlike his other creations, Murakami’s Mr. DOB is equal parts erotic, disturbing and cartoonish — an incisive mockery of the mingling of commerce and fine art so prevalent in Japanese popular culture.

Find original Takashi Murakami prints, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.