Attention fans of Takashi Murakami! Pin back your ears and prepare to digest what we are about to feed you. A feast of work by the Japanese conceptual artist and filmmaker awaits in Milan’s Palazzo Reale, and it’s so deliciously tasty you won’t be able to stop yourselves from devouring it all and then going for a lie-down in a darkened room to recover. I don’t know what’s with the food analogy, maybe it’s just cos I’m scarfed down a spectacular lunch and can’t stop thinking about it, but no word of a lie, this is a succulent offering if ever there was one.
Takashi Murakami: Arhat Cycle is an exhibition of large-format paintings and sculptures currently filling the magnificent confines of the Palazzo’s Sala delle Cariatidi – ravaged by bombs in World War Two but recently restored. Visitors are greeted first up by 2008’s stunning silver sculpture Oval Silver Buddha, which leads on two three enormous Arhat paintings, each between five and 10 metres long and named after the Sanskrit word approximating to “a being that has achieved enlightenment”. Created in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake of 2011, the works draw on ancient Buddhist stories of decay and death and are brimming with the grotesque, the displaced, and the defiant in a somewhat psychedelic environment. Among the plethora of other exhibits there are also a number of self-portraits, in which Murakami continues to explore his place in the world. The event concludes on 7 September.
Takashi Murakami (Japanese, 1962-)
Standing on the Bridge Linking Space and Time, 2014
Acrylic, gold leaf and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on aluminium frame
1000 x 1000 x 50.8 mm
Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
(c)2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Takashi Murakami
Dark Matter & Me, 2014
Acrylic, gold leaf and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel 2000 x 50.8 mm
Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
(c)2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Installation view of Arhat Cycle, 2014,
Palazzo Reale, Milan
Photo by Andrea Rossetti
Artwork©Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.
Takashi Murakami
69 Arhats Beneath the Bodhi Tree, 2013
Acrylic, gold and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board
3000 x 10000 mm
Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
(c)2013 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Takashi Murakami (Japanese, 1962-)
Red Demon and Blue Demon with 48 Arhats, 2013
Acrylic, gold and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board
3000 x 5000 mm
Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
(c)2013 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Installation view of Arhat Cycle, 2014,
Palazzo Reale, Milan
Photo by Andrea Rossetti
Artwork©Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.
Takashi Murakami (Japanese, 1962-) 100 Arhats, 2013
Acrylic, gold and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board
3000 x 10000 mm
Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
(c)2013 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
