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Takashi Murakami: Business Art Flattener

by JNOMICS
! ! “Within the art scheme, oneʼs work must have a critical component to be
! ! popular. The general pubic, however, is attracted to very silly paintings. I
! ! donʼt see why contemporary works have to appeal to one audience or
! ! another.”1
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Takashi Murakami

Introduction

! In 1961 sculptor Claes Oldenburg became a storekeeper, opening “The Store” in

New York City as a location where people could purchase his works just as they would

household products. In 1968 Andy Warhol moved from his eminent Silver Factory to a

new location at 33 Union Square West, New York City, intending to transition from the

colorful prints that had made him famous, to a business-centric model focused on the

production of movies and the development of “business art.” In 1986 Keith Haring

opened the Pop Shop at 292 Lafeyette Street, New York City, a store that sold

merchandise bearing his playful characters and images. In 1996 a burgeoning 34-year

-old Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, established the Hiropon Factory (later to

become the KaiKai Kiki organization) as a corporate entity to oversee the production,

sale, and business administration of his artworks and “art products.” 2 He would become

one of the worldʼs wealthiest, most lauded fine artists, articulating a prescient,

conceptual understanding of the relationship between Japanese subculture, popular

culture, and artʼs westernized “high” culture, called Superflat. The theory provided

Murakami the foundation to realize a series of innovations in the business practices of

modern art. Without contemporary counterpart, the “business art” innovations of Takashi

Murakami represent the most important evolutions to the business sector of the art

economy by an artist since Andy Warhol. !

2
! University of Chicago Economics Professor David Galenson, Ph.D., has, over the

last 15 years, developed an analytical framework for understanding and identifying two

distinct types of innovators: conceptual and experimental. Using empirical methods,

such as the development of age-price profiles that depict an artistʼs creative lifecycle, he

has demonstrated a clear distinction between the production behaviors and goals of

these two types of creators. As defined by him, conceptual innovators “have been

motivated by the desire to communicate specific ideas and emotions. Their goals for a

particular work can usually be stated precisely, before its production, either as a desired

image or as a desired process for the workʼs execution.”3 This definition can be used as

a means to understand the nature of Murakamiʼs approach, and as a contrasting lens to

understand how his career, still in progress, will be historically understood. Using the

framework of what it means to be a conceptual artist, comparisons can be made to

other creative innovators, such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock

(experimental artist), Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Jeff Koons, all

western artists identified as having influenced Murakamiʼs work. A review of auction

records provides the necessary empirical data for an age-price regression analysis of

Murakami, one that will label him a conceptualist.

! Once the conceptual identification is established, the task becomes qualifying

Murakami as an innovator in the realm of “business art.” An examination of the

organization and purpose of his company KaiKai KiKi, including its production process,

merchandising output, and product collaborations, asserts Murakami as the most

significant innovator in the business of art since Andy Warhol. He is a visionary who has

evolved the business ideas of Pop Art to a place not previously considered.

3
! A measure of the importance of an innovation is the extent of its influence on

future artists and on the art market at large. Where it is challenging to measure the

relative influence of a living artist, a different metric must be determined. Measuring the

influence of Murakamiʼs innovations can be done by surveying the market for “art

products” that have been created in his wake, and by noting the proliferation of

collaborations between artists and commercial producers since his groundbreaking

2003 Louis Vuitton project that made him internationally famous. While these

corollaries are worth discussing, there is not enough empirical data to assert their long-

term historical import to the measurement of Murakamiʼs influence. The influence, and

therefore long-term impact of his innovations, will be rendered in decades to come.

However, by contrasting the ideologically and empirically conceptual nature of his

contributions against a thorough survey of his business practices and professional

accomplishments, a clear image of Takashi Murakami as a “business art” innovator will

emerge.

Conceptual v. Experimental

! “When he paints a picture, he knows what he wants to say and what kind of
! picture will in fact say it; his forms and colors are judiciously chosen to achieve
! the desired end, and he uses them like the words of a vocabulary.”4
! ! ! ! ! ! ! Amedee Ozenfant on Pablo Picasso

! Dr. Galenson has explained that, “artists who have produced experimental

innovations have been motivated by aesthetic criteria; they have aimed at presenting

visual perceptions. Their goals are imprecise, so their procedure is tentative and

incremental. The imprecision of their goals means that these artists rarely feel they

4
have succeeded, and their careers are consequently often dominated by the pursuit of a

single objective.”5 Given this definition, experimental innovators often make their most

important contributions later in life. The most significant paintings of Paul Cezanneʼs

career were produced at the age of 67. In contrast, Pablo Picasso, a conceptual

innovator, reached his pinnacle at the age of 26.6 In his 2001 book, Painting Outside

the Lines, Dr. Galenson described conceptual innovators:

" “Because their goals are precise, conceptual artists are often satisfied that they
" have produced one or more works that achieve a specific purpose. Unlike
" experimental artists, whose inability to achieve their goals often ties them into a
" single problem for a whole career, the conceptual artistʼs ability to be satisfied
" that a problem has been solved can free him to pursue new goals. The careers
" of some important conceptual artists have consequently been marked by a series
" of innovations, each very different from the others.” 7

While Takashi Murakami seeks a specific set of “aesthetic criteria” in his work, purely

visual elements are not his primary focus. Rather, he has built the first period of his

career around a set of ideological objectives aimed at expressing to the western world a

uniquely Japanese art movement, Superflat. The theoretical underpinnings of the

movement center on the cultural response of Japan to the United Statesʼ nuclear

bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August, 1945. Catalyzed by

his cultural surveying, Murakami developed the conceptual framework for Superflat. At

the outset, he explained “super flatness” to be “the sensibility that has contributed to

and continues to contribute to the construction of Japanese culture, as a worldview, and

show that it is an original concept that links the past with present and future.” He

questioned, “During the modern period, as Japan has been Westernized [sic], how has

the “super flat” sensibility metamorphosed? If that can be grasped clearly, then our

stance today will come into focus.”8

5
Superflat is the layering of ideas or visual elements on top of one another to

create a single two-dimensional image without vocal center. Murakami recently

compared his approach to that of Jackson Pollockʼs “all-over” style. In an Artforum

article from 1967, William Rubin explained that the influence of “all-over” “consisted in

the establishing of the ʻsingle imageʼ... ʻAll-overʼ refers to a generalized patterning of the

surface of canvas,” both aesthetic tenets of Superflat.9 With regard to Pollock,

Murakami commented about the proliferation of his “jelly-fish eyes” (an iconic Superflat

image) in an interview conducted for his 2010 Versaille retrospective:

# “I place this eye motif in places where I want the spectatorsʼ gaze to pass and,
# eventually stop. These works apply the principle used by Jackson Pollock. His
# works are designed so that our gaze follows the trails of colours left on the flat
# surface. His works invite us to shift our gaze by following the same colour, black
# marks, spurs, etc...The rule that is followed by these types of works, Pollockʼs
# and mine, is designed to make the spectatorʼs gaze wander over the flat surface.
# Pollock was perfectly aware of this ʻdesignʼ principle.”10

Murakami, a conceptualist, is speaking to a similarity between his work and that of an

experimentalist, Pollock. Where the “all-over” principle centers on the creation of an

image generated for singular consumption by the viewer, and the concept of the gaze

discussed above explains the functionality of the flat surface, a clearer understanding of

Superflat is revealed. To reconcile the inherent clash of a conceptualist strongly

identifying with an experimentalist, it must be remembered that Murakami is focused on

the use of Pollockʼs gaze and the “all-over” techniques only insofar as they most

effectively communicate the idea of Superflat. Whereas the technique was primary to

Pollockʼs artistic goals, for Murakami the technique is employed in a supporting role for

his larger, ideological ambitions.

6
! This fundamentally conceptual element of Murakamiʼs work is further portrayed in

statements made by the artist upon the completion of his “Superflat Trilogy.” He

explained, “The whole project began with a simple question: ʻWhat is art?ʼ What

concepts or viewpoints would truly guide an inquiry into the meaning of art in Japan?

The search for answers to this question was the underlying mission of the Superflat

project.”11 While the project generated tremendous output including three successive

international museum exhibitions, the compiling of an art history textbook (Little Boy:

The Arts of Japanʼs Exploding Subculture, Yale University Press) outlining the principles

of Superflat, merchandise (all designed explicitly for the project by Murakami), and

numerous, valuable, original artworks created by Murakami and others of his KaiKai

KiKi artists, the aim of the project was to answer a series of philosophical questions

about art in Japan and its relationship to the western world. The output was a

byproduct of the push to answer these questions. This concomitance to an idea, to a

“specific purpose,” as emphasized by Dr. Galenson, along with the clear delineation of a

finishing point for the project, the publication of the Little Boy text and curated exhibition,

is fundamentally conceptual.

! Another central component of the conceptual versus experimental framework is

the creation of age-price profiles as a means to classify an artistʼs innovation type. A

finding of Dr. Galensonʼs work is that conceptual artists generally have profiles that peak

at an early age, followed by a significant decline in the production of important works

over the remainder of their career. That is, the work a conceptual artist produces early

in his career will constitute the most important, influential, and therefore, innovative

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contribution. Comparatively, an experimentalist will progress across a lifetime,

producing his most innovative work in later years, often after the age of 50.

! Constructing an age-price profile for Murakami is useful in solidifying his status

as a conceptualist. To do so, all of his auction records were reviewed from Artnetʼs

auction database. Given the total quantity of works sold (not bought in), numbering

more than 1400, only works that achieved prices of more than $50,000 were considered

in the analysis, as works below this number were heavily proportioned to prints and

lithographs. More than 98% of Murakamiʼs total sales are accounted for by the 127

items sold for more than $50,000. The ages for the profile indicate Murakamiʼs age at

the point of creation for each work.

! The profile of the raw data commences in 1990, at age 28, when he made

Polyrythum, which sold in April 2008 for a price slightly below estimate: $155,970.00.

This work constitutes the single highest price received for a work produced prior to

Murakami completing his Ph.D. at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

The profile peaks at age 36 with auction sales of $19,720,933.00, over 22 total works

sold (also the highest number of works sold from a single year). Table 1 (p. 10) depicts

the rankings and auction totals from each year in which at least a single Murakami piece

sold at auction for a sum greater than $50,000. Notably, 4 of the top 5 years took place

when Murakami was in his thirties, with the earliest happening at 35, just 4 years

following graduation. Rapid ascent like this is common to conceptualists. A graph

depicting the raw data for the age-price analysis (Table 2, p. 11) clearly illustrates the

greater success of Murakamiʼs early work over his later pieces, while also highlighting

peaks at the ages of 41 and 42 (years 2003 and 2004), where 27 total works were sold

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for a combined $14,169,136.00. Calculating the raw, age-price data allows for the age-

price regression, which depicts a single, peaked curve of the age to price profile for an

artist over his lifecycle. Murakamiʼs auction records generated a curve (Table 3, p. 12)

that rises steeply to age 36 before beginning a sharp decline in price for more recent

work. This curve is emblematic of other conceptual artists studied by Dr. Galenson, such

as Pablo Picasso, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. That the auction records and

regression analysis point to a peak period of productivity just five years into his

professional career signifies a strong correlation to other conceptual artists. Murakami

“judiciously” chooses the layers of his artworks to operate as “words of a vocabulary”

that convey his meticulously developed ideas, Superflat being the prime example thus

far. When the “precise” nature of his process is contrasted against an age-price profile

that indicates his most important works to have been made early in his career, a clear

image of Takashi Murakami as a conceptual artist is revealed.

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Table 1: Murakami Annual Auction Sale Rankings

Year of Work Total Auction Sales Rank Total Works Age at Year
Produced
1998 $19,720,933.00 1 22 36

2003 $8,436,791.00 2 18 41

1997 $8,119,780.00 3 7 35

2000 $6,626,216.00 4 17 38

1999 $6,340,769.00 5 8 37

2004 $5,732,345.00 6 9 42

1996 $4,403,606.00 7 6 34

2005 $3,375,506.00 8 3 43

2007 $3,347,172.00 9 7 45

2001 $3,151,804.00 10 8 39

2002 $2,153,670.00 11 7 40

2008 $1,041,113.00 12 2 46

1994 $1,007,675.00 13 3 32

1993 $977,252.00 14 2 31

2006 $630,405.00 15 3 44

1995 $443,610.00 16 2 33

1990 $155,970.00 17 1 28

1992 $55,643.00 18 1 30

Source: All data collected from Artnet auction database.

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Table 2: Takashi Murakami Single Auction Prices Over Time

$20,000,000.00

$15,000,000.00
Auction
Prices
$10,000,000.00

$5,000,000.00

$0
28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Age

Source: All prices collected from Artnet auction database.

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Table 3: Takashi Murakami Age-Price Profile (Regression)

$60,000,000.00

$45,000,000.00
Aggregate Annual
Auction Price
Sales Totals
$30,000,000.00

$15,000,000.00 y = -382068x2 + 2.417E+7x - 3.305E+8

$0
10 100
Age

Source: All prices collected from Artnet auction database.

12
Murakami the Innovator

! “In addition to churning out finely crafted artworks, he is busy producing related
! merchandise; running an art fair; managing the careers of seven Japanese
! artists; planning exhibitions and their accompanying catalogues; hosting a radio
! show and penning a newspaper column; pursuing commercial “collaborations” in
! the form of product tie-ins, advertising commissions, and corporate branding
! projects; and establishing an independent animation studio with an eye toward
! the eventual release of a feature-length film - all under the auspices of KaiKai
! Kiki...If Andy Warhol provided the model, Murakami has broken the mold.”12
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Scott Rothkopf

! Claes Oldenburgʼs 1961 store opening was the first attempt by an artist to

appropriate works traditionally reserved for the clever, intellectualized atmosphere of

galleries and museums to a space where consumer products would be sold. The

venture had little to do with the business of art. Critic Arthur Danto said of Oldenburgʼs

project, “It was a critique of that air of precocity art galleries and museums created to

reflect on the precociousness of the art they showed. It too was a way of overcoming

the gap between art and life.”13 While Oldenburgʼs contribution was important, the first

effective, contemporary changes to the artistʼs business model were made by Andy

Warhol in 1968, when he instituted a shift in his workʼs priority, choosing to focus on

what he termed “business art.”

! For Warhol, “business art” was “the step that comes after Art,” one that would

become the goal of his later career. He explained, “I started as a commercial artist, and

I want to finish as a business artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind

of art...making money is art and working is art, and good business is the best art.”14 This

mindset has influenced the career trajectories of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring,

Damien Hirst, and Jeff Koons, all artists that demonstrated more adept business

acumen than their predecessors (Pablo Picasso being a possible exception). The

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influence of this latter contribution by Warhol was based largely on the strength of his

innovations from the early 1960s. In reality, his transition to a business model built

around the production of feature films, which was financially reliant on portrait

commissions by wealthy collectors, was not successful. Perhaps the most important

result of this period was the creation of Interview magazine, which is still in circulation.

Of this time Danto remarked, “The ʻbusiness artʼ of the 1970s and the 1980s...was

touch-and-go, sometimes selling out, sometimes falling flat, though little of it had the

overwhelming conceptual depth of the work he had done in the 1960s, when he wrought

the changes that transfigured art history.”15 While Warholʼs work from this era failed to

achieve the predominance of his earlier successes, the “business art” philosophy would

be a lasting contribution of his later career.#

# By 1985 Keith Haring had begun considering the idea for a shop that sold

merchandise bearing his iconic, colorful figures, and images. He commented, “Around

1983 I became aware that imitations of my work were springing up all over the world...In

Europe I saw graffiti of the baby and of the dog. My things had entered into the popular

culture whether I wanted it or not.”16 While these findings were indicative of his rising

success in the art world, the cultural proliferation of his work made Haring

uncomfortable. He observed:

# “The more people want it, the more they alone can understand and have the
# power to disseminate it, the more special it is. And thatʼs the game youʼre
# supposed to play. From the beginning I was against this game. Although I had a
# foot in the art world, I wasnʼt going to compromise and let the art world
# manipulate the work and make it become something it wasnʼt.”17

The tension of the “game” became a driving force behind his career. He called the

choice to open the Pop Shop a “real tightrope” that was “dangerous on either side,”

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inferring the challenge associated with maintaining the art worldʼs respect while

endeavoring to create a new popular reach for his work.18 Warhol, a confidant of

Haringʼs, regularly discussed the idea with him, emphasizing the importance of “not

caring what people thought.”19

" At this time Haring ceased work on the subway drawings that had brought him

early notoriety, replacing this “network of information” with an “international network of

distribution by producing Swatches, designing record covers, and exhibiting in galleries

and museums all over the world.”20 The Pop Shop became another way to perpetuate

the ethic of the subway drawings by providing “a place where collectors could go, but

also where kids from the Bronx, visitors from out of town, and whoever could go.” 21 The

concept that supported the creation of the shop was as important as the physical

location and goods sold, an indicator of Haringʼs conceptual nature. Of comparisons to

Oldenburgʼs “Store,” Haring commented, “It didnʼt matter that [he] had done a store in

the 1960s. This was certainly a very different kind of store. It was trying to deal with

things on a whole different level than what Oldenburg did, by working with mass

production in a way that was much closer to what Andy had done.”22 The Pop Shop

evolved Warholʼs ideas one step further, but was not indicative of Haringʼs most

influential contributions, his “public art” projects. In 1988 he opened a second Pop Shop

location in Tokyo. Unbeknownst to Haring, a 26-year-old graduate student at the Tokyo

National University of Fine Arts and Music would appropriate the ideas of Warhol by

walking Haringʼs “tightrope” in a more audacious manner than had previously been

attempted.

15
! As Takashi Murakami approached the completion of his Ph.D. studies in 1993, he

began considering a radical departure in his work from the traditional Nihonga to an

embrace of contemporary art. He expressed an unadulterated admiration for otakuʼs

anime and manga sub-genres, even drawing inspiration directly from the work of famed

animator Yoshinori Kanada. He began studying the work of Japanʼs influential

animators, learning their craft well enough to discern parallels in particular scenes to

popular western movies such as “Terminator 2.” While he has expounded on the

influence of Jackson Pollockʼs technique on his work, Murakami was similarly affected

by the work of animators, Kanada, Ichiro Itano, Hideaki Anno, Masami Obari, and Yasuo

Otsuka. Murakami emphasized the singularly Japanese nature of their work, “with

single-perspective painting never crossing their minds. Instead they constructed their

images along vertical and horizontal lines. Rather than balancing the main picture, they

establish a minimum balance that reaches out toward each of the four corners of the

square,” creating the illusion of a single image without vocal center.23 Murakami further

explained, “That extreme planarity and distribution of power allow the viewer to

assemble an image in their minds from the fragments they gathered scanning the

image. This movement of the gaze over an image is a key concept in my theory of the

“super flat.”24 These comments are striking in their resemblance to his remarks about

Pollockʼs influence on the aesthetic of Superflat. However, what is most telling is

something entirely different: Murakami was not only interested in integrating elements

of the animatorʼs approach to imagery into his artworks, he was interested from the

outset in actively contributing works directly to this market, pieces that would not be

considered fine art, but rather “art products.” He was interested in becoming an active

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participant in otaku. This interest would first manifest in the creation of the “Superflat

Museum” editions in 2003.

! The underlying motivation is similar to Warholʼs, as Scott Rothkopf has noted that

Murakami, too, was creating work that “pushes that word [work] closer to the common

end of its connotative spectrum.”25 Yet, Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art

at the Guggenheim (New York), noted a central distinction, commenting:

“Murakamiʼs Superflat program aims to explode the enduring Western-art


boundaries between art and the mass media of comics and cartoons. His is a
stronger assault than Andy Warholʼs Pop Art, which lifted commercial products
like Brillo boxes and advertising mediums like silkscreen from the supermarket
and street billboard to the gallery and museum. Murakamiʼs thrust goes the other
way, extending the concept of “fine arts” into the gigantic, global marketplace of
TV, comic books, videogames, fashion, and the Internet.”26!

Both artists share a common interest in the identification of work as art or not, but their

methods of execution and perspectives on artʼs cultural location vary by significant

degree.

! Murakamiʼs corporate identity is built to promote the dispersion of his artworks

into the “gigantic, global marketplace.” First established in 1996, the “Hiropon

Factory” (an homage to Warhol) was a location for the production of Murakamiʼs

artworks and merchandise. Five years later in 2001, KaiKai KiKi was incorporated as a

fully functioning creative and administrative operation to oversee the conception,

production, and sale of his work across all product categories. Scott Rothkopf

recognized an interesting dichotomy, noting, “For perhaps even more antithetical to the

cause of art than mass cultureʼs endless stream of trinkets and divertissements are the

multinational corporations that produce them. And here Murakami has turned the tables

- if not the knife - by co-opting their structures as seamlessly as they have been

17
accused of co-opting artʼs.”27 All of this has been done without apology from the artist

for the scope of his ambition or the rules he breaks, each hallmarks of conceptual

innovation."

" It is not enough for an analysis of his corporate structure to be contained within

the realm of theoretical discussion. An inquiry into the technical nature of his production

methods is revealing as to the role technology plays in enabling Murakami to transition

seamlessly between product categories. Stanford University Art History Professor

Pamela Lee, Ph.D., noted the use of Bezier curve applications within Adobe Illustrator,

explaining that, “In contrast with raster graphics programs like Photoshop, vector

graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator are not organized around bitmaps but by the

geometry of points, lines, and curves.”28 This technical distinction enables a kind of

image and resolution independence in files generated with Bezier programs, resulting in

an “infinite scalability” for Murakamiʼs sketches.29 Dr. Lee further articulates the

importance of this ability:

" “For the data contained in a template based on vector graphics can be used to
" cover any surface: It can be scaled way up or way down to conform to the
" contours of any medium; it can be stretched to the thinnest and tautest
" proportions, or it can be radically compressed to produce the type of roly-poly
" forms identified with the Japanese cult of cuteness (kawai-i), as is evident in the
" elastic morphologies of the many characters that populate his canvases; it can
" be repeated and repurposed and customized to meet the needs of disparate
" markets, whether hedge-fund collectors or the tween set.”30

Murakami begins production on a work by creating a pencil sketch of the image, then

hands it to his assistants who are highly skilled Macintosh users and graphic designers,

to be scanned into the Adobe Illustrator software. Next, decisions are made as to the

material application of the image and color choices with each phase overseen by

Murakami himself. As a work nears completion, he is meticulous in reviewing it and

18
does not hesitate to start over, if the piece does not meet standards.31 “Infinite

scalability” enables Murakami to generate works across many product categories with

very little transition time. While technology has created this opportunity, it could be said

that what Murakami has achieved in integrating Macintosh computers into his work is

similar to the print innovations Andy Warhol made in the 60s. Warhol was always

concerned with the rapidity of the production process, desiring an almost industrial

efficiency behind the creation of his work. What Murakami has done with the utilization

of technology and the employment of assistants at KaiKai Kiki is equally

groundbreaking. Moreover, he has pioneered a more diverse product line than Warhol,

using speed of production to move quickly between development of fine art pieces and

merchandise, or “art products,” his term for these derivative items, pieces that Warhol

would have termed “business art.”

! While both Warhol and Murakami value(d) speed of production, and while the

creation of the Hiropon Factory was inspired by Warhol, the culture of KaiKai KiKi is

exceptionally different. Katy Siegel, Professor of Art History at Hunter College said,

“...while Warholʼs workers were frolicking scenesters - drug addicts, transvestites,

society girls - Murakamiʼs workers in Saitama (a Tokyo suburb) and Brooklyn punch in

and out with time clocks and work extremely hard.” Additionally, she boasted that,

“Murakami not only credits the assistants who work on each piece, in a recent catalogue

he even published their sometimes less-than-glowing perspectives on the working

process...Murakamiʼs studio resembles that of a fashion designer or filmmaker.” 32 This

difference in culture illustrates another important piece of how Murakami has altered the

landscape of the art business. Prior to his arrival, the idea that any artist would run a

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corporate entity as disciplined and commercial as KaiKai KiKi was unimaginable. In

August 2010 Murakami commented in Interview magazine: “Iʼm very sad to be

compared with Warhol and the Factory, because I have no drugs, you know. We have

no drug culture in Japan! Maybe itʼs because our attitude toward labor is totally

different.”33 This cultural divide creates for Murakami a fundamental point of delineation

between his professional approach and that of the western Pop artists with whom he is

so commonly associated. It therefore cannot be expected that he would pursue the

same types of projects or have the same artistic outlook as his western comrades.

" In 2003, two years after forming KaiKai KiKi, two projects were launched that

epitomize the cultural merging after which Murakami lusts. The first project, a

collaboration for a Murakami designed line of limited edition handbags and accessories

requested by Louis Vuitton Creative Director Marc Jacobs, made him internationally

famous. Upon introduction to Murakamiʼs work at the 2002 Coloriage exhibition at the

Fondation Cartier in Paris, the second show in the “Superflat Triology,” Jacobs

commented, “When I first saw Takashiʼs work I smiled and I wondered: Where did this

explosion come from?”34 The 2003 project “called for a multicolored Monogram canvas,

for which the artist created 33 colors, printed through 33 silk screens, on a black or

white background. In addition, he created the Cherry Blossoms bags, the Eye Love

bags, a watch and three pendants for his fine jewelry collection.”35 This collaboration

generated more than $300 million in revenues for Louis Vuittonʼs parent company

LVMH, of which the profits were evenly split with Murakami.36 In conjunction with the

projectʼs release, Murakami produced gallery paintings bearing images of his take on

the Louis Vuitton monogram; these works created critical tumult. To his critics

20
Murakami responded, “the only difference between making a painting and making a

handbag is the ratio of personal control that must be compromised in light of the

practical realities of committees and production schedules.”37 Production cycle

differences are the points around which he differentiated between the Louis Vuitton

project and creation of his traditional artworks. For Murakami, the intention of the work

is focused on the larger theoretical schema as opposed to questions of material,

location, and audience.!

! The 2003 project was followed by the 2008 collaboration with Louis Vuitton in

conjunction with Murakamiʼs retrospective at MOCA in Los Angeles (subsequently

moving to Brooklyn Museum in New York, and alternative locations in Germany and

Spain). Most notable was the request by Murakami to include a Louis Vuitton boutique

inside the exhibition that sold exclusive LV wares of his personal design. In another

attempt to blur the line between consumer goods and fine art, he created a “Panda”

character that was emblazoned on LV products, created as a plush stuffed toy, and

produced as a fiberglass sculpture. The LV items sold for between $600 and $1,000,

the plush doll can currently be purchased on Ebay for $25,000, and the Panda sculpture

was sold in 2008 for $2.7 million. This delineation exemplifies the artistʼs determination

to continually push his audience to question what it considers to be art. Katy Siegel

astutely observed, “While even Murakami draws the classical distinction between

commercial work and the liberated work of the artist, he places them on a continuum,

and not as absolute opposites.”38 By inserting a luxury retail boutique into the center of

a curated exhibition and creating editions of items void of distinction as art or fashion

(and so they were both), Murakami performed a magic trick. He dared the art world to

21
dispute his merging of the cultural hierarchy, as he sold them the goods that were

making his argument.

! In late 2003, following the Louis Vuitton release, Murakami moved to the opposite

end of the price point spectrum for consumer goods. He introduced the “Superflat

Museum,” an exclusively Japanese project in which miniatures of Murakamiʼs sculptures

and characters were packed in convenience store gum, shokugan (think Bazooka Joe),

along with a series of figures placed at higher price points that were sold by otaku

focused merchants. Of the project the artist said:

! “This fall, I will start selling chewing gum under the brand “Superflat Museum,”
! which will include a little gift figure inside each package, priced at only three
! hundred yen. My Miss Ko2 was bid at five hundred thousand dollars at
! Christieʼs. And you can obtain a miniature of Miss Ko2, the same shape but in a
! smaller size (about five centimeters high), for free if you buy the gum.”39

Each gift toy, or figurine, came with a biographical explanation of the original artwork.

Murakami saw the project as an opportunity to educate younger people about his work

and to develop their interest in collecting art. Where Keith Haring envisioned the Pop

Shop to be a “really fun place, like an information center to find out about my work,” it

was limited by geographic location. Murakami scaled the size of the information center

down to a portable form, increasing the reach of his ideas, and creating a distribution

network that could span all economic classes.40 He collaborated with the Kaiyodo, the

same firm that produces his life size sculptures, in the production of the miniature

figures. They were created in five distinct (30,000 edition) series, with serial numbered

certificates of authenticity. As for the theoretical value of the project, Murakami said,

“when comparing half a million dollars to ʻfree,ʼ thereʼs an overwhelmingly different

sense of values, almost a confusion of values. This confusion is the purpose of creating

22
the shokugan figures.”41 This “confusion” is the intention of the artist, is the intention of

Superflat, is a profoundly conceptual objective, and is a cornerstone of his

innovation.!

! To better understand Murakamiʼs contributions, it is helpful to contrast them

against two of his contemporaries: Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. Both artists were

influenced by Warhol and have sought to create work of equal prominence. Hirst, who

is younger than Murakami, and Koons, his elder, have generated substantially larger

auction house receipts than has Murakami. Hirstʼs primary innovation was the 2008

auction Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, a pioneering event wherein the artist sold a

new collection of works directly through Sothebyʼs auction house in London, bypassing

his dealers in a show of irreverence for established market structure. Most auctions

consist solely of transactions between collectors, and an artistʼs dealer typically offers

the first point of sale for a new collection. In 48 hours, Hirst sold more than $200 million

of his own art. Koonsʻs central innovation has been to turn kitsch into art. Katy Siegel

remarked when comparing Koons to Murakami that: “Much as Cezanne made

something solid out of Impressionism, Koons made something solid out of kitsch.”42

Koonsʼs kitsch arguably prepared the art world for Murakamiʼs playfulness. Additionally,

Murakamiʼs 2010 Versaille retrospective owes its existence to the success Koonsʼs

2008 show at the historic location.

! The critical distinction of Murakamiʼs innovation is the role that merchandising

(“art products”) plays in his oeuvre. Both Hirst and Koons source the design and

production of their merchandise to outside firm Other Criteria, which assists artists in the

creation of derivative products, while giving them final say in what is manufactured.

23
Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons do not oversee the manufacture of their merchandise as

they would their gallery pieces. Takashi Murakami is directly responsible for the

appropriation of images from his traditional artworks into “art products.” Additionally,

while both Koons and Hirst (conceptualists) have “factory-like” organizations that

oversee the production of their work, corporate structure is not integral to their artistic

vision. Compared to Murakami, Hirst and Koons have been unsuccessful in merging

cultural hierarchies to create broad, popular distribution networks for their ideas. They

are committed to “business art” as was conceived by Warhol, but have failed to

appropriate their ideas to consumer products and popular culture at Murakamiʼs

penetrating level.

Conclusion

" “It would be wonderful if I could build a structure similar to Disneyʼs...Disney can
" survive economic dangers, changing executive positions, the outbreak of internal
" corporate conflicts. I want my work to continue to live even after my body dies.”43
" " " " " " " " " " Takashi Murakami

" Where the early years of Murakamiʼs professional career were spent producing

artworks and conducting a cultural study of Japan that culminated in the creation of an

art movement, Superflat, the period since 2003 has witnessed the redirection of his

ambition towards other creative disciplines: Such as fashion, animation, music, and

advertising. The Louis Vuitton collaboration and “Superflat Museum” propelled the

development of many new projects which included well publicized productions of anime

shorts as advertisements for Louis Vuitton, album art and music video collaborations

with musician Kanye West, and the development of KaiKai KiKiʼs first full length anime

24
movie. This trajectory represents an expansion of his global presence into outlets that

service an increasingly economically diverse audience. Murakami is growing beyond

the confines of fine artʼs market. During these advances his auction prices have also

grown significantly, achieving his first million dollar sale in 2006 and a $15 million sale in

2008. The latter price places him sixth on a list of highest auction prices received for

the work of a living artist.44

" He is building his own universe, his own “Disney.” Of the role the iconic brand

has played in his development, Murakami has said:

" “My way is to establish Walt Disney style. I believe Walt Disney is a super
" artist...Some people say he is artist or not. I think much more than Marcel
" Duchamp is Walt Disney concept piece, really hardcore. Because he can get
" what people desire.”45

Whether differentiating his fashion collaborations from his artworks by production cycle

incongruences, equating the longevity of his work with the development of a sound

corporate structure, or comparing Walt Disney to Marcel Duchamp, Takashi Murakami is

forging a new model for the business of art and the role it plays in expressing creative

vision.

" Determining the influence of an artist in mid-career is challenging, even when

their contributions are as disruptive, and wide-reaching as Murakamiʼs. Where an artist

displays consummate focus around that which they are trying to communicate, moves

seamlessly between a diverse range of projects, and is continually seeking a new

direction or outlet for the projection of their ideas into artistic forms, it is right to label

them a conceptualist. Where a conceptualist possesses the ambition to impact an

ideological shift on an industry or creative discipline, demonstrates an irreverence for

25
prior convention, and brings an undoubtedly new idea to market, they are a conceptual

innovator. Takashi Murakami is this.

! Building on the “business art” principles of Andy Warhol, and evolving the ideas

that Keith Haring could not in his short life, Murakami has created a new epoch in the

business of art. He developed Superflat to provide the theoretical basis for his cultural

explorations, and connect his business ambition to his artistic vision. In his quest to

eliminate the boundaries between “high” and “low” art he embraced the creation of “art

products” and collaborations across creative disciplines, forcing the art world to question

their preconceived notions about artʼs boundaries. Andy Warhol said that he “started as

a commercial artist,” and wanted, “to finish as a business artist.” He thought “making

money” to be art, “working” to be art, and “good business” to be the highest art.46

Through the development of an art movement, the construction of a corporation, and

the production of art without categorical bound, Takashi Murakami has merged Warholʼs

three precepts. He has conceptually flattened “business art,” and innovated a new idea

about the purpose business has in art and art has in business.

26
End Notes

1 Pagel, “Takashi Murakami,” 190.


2 Kelmachter, “Interview with Takashi Murakami,” 93.
3 Galenson, Old Masters and Young Geniuses, 4-5.
4 Galenson, Old Master and Young Geniuses, 10.
5 Galenson, Old Masters and Young Geniuses, 4.
6 Galenson, “Understanding Creativity,” 8.
7 Galenson, Painting Outside the Lines, 51.
8 Murakami, “Superflat Manifesto,” 5.
9 Rubin, “Jackson Pollock and the Modern Tradition,” 127.
10 Murakami, “All My Works are Made Up of Special Effects,” 26.
11 Murakami, “Superflat Triology,” 151.
12 Rothkopf, “Company Man,” 132.
13 Danto, Andy Warhol, 32.
14 Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, 92.
15 Danto, Andy Warhol, 123.
16 Gruen, Keith Haring, 127.
17 Gruen, Keith Haring, 128.
18 Gruen, Keith Haring, 128.
19 Gruen, Keith Haring, 129.
20 Haring, Keith Haring, 384.
21 Haring, Keith Haring, 384.
22 Haring, Keith Haring, 384.
23 Murakami, A Theory of Super Flat Japanese Art, 15.
24 Murakami, A Theory of Super Flat Japanese Art, 15.
25 Rothkopf, “Company Man,” 132.
26 Munroe, “Introducing Little Boy,” 245.

27
27 Rothkopf, “Company Man,” 133.
28 Lee, “Economies of Scale.”
29 Lee, “Economies of Scale.”
30 Lee, “Economies of Scale.”
31 Rothkopf, “Company Man,” 129.
32 Siegel, “In the Air,” 278-279.
33 Gingeras, “Takashi Murakami,” 101.
34 Mead, “Murakami, Takashi,” 291.
35 Saillard, “The Empire of Signs,” 71.
36 Matlack, “The Vuitton Money Machine.”
37 Siegel, “In the Air,” 277.
38 Siegel, “In the Air,” 277.
39 Siegel, “In the Air,” 277.
40 Haring, “The Pop Shop,” 384.
41 Rothkopf, “Company Man,” 137.
42 Siegel, “In the Air,” 285.
43 Mean, “Murakami, Takashi,” 291.
44 Art Economist, “The List,” 21
45 Hall, “Warm, Kind of Melting,” no. 8.
46 Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, 92.

28
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