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Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg

About

Known for his collaborations with pop icon Kanye West and fashion house Louis Vuitton, and for vibrant anime-inspired characters, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) has blurred the boundaries throughout his career between high and low culture, ancient and modern, East and West. The MCA is proud to present a major retrospective of his paintings, featuring fifty works that span three decades of his career, from the artist's earliest mature works—many of which are being shown in North America for the first time—to his recent, monumentally scaled paintings. The exhibition, titled Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, shows how Murakami's art is rooted in traditions of Japanese painting and folklore, and highlights the artist's careful attention to craft and materials. It also showcases the artist's astute eye for the contemporary influences of globalization, media culture, the continued threats of nuclear power.

Murakami’s increasingly complex paintings are filled with characters and scenarios both cute and menacing, saccharine sweet and critically acidic. They are evidence of a conflicted, concerned, and committed commentator on cultural production who recognizes that any effective “hook” is bound to have a sharp point. Throughout his career, and especially over the last ten years, Murakami has combined spectacle with sophistication, transforming the art world while establishing his own reputation within it.

Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and is curated by the MCA's James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling.

The exhibition is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum’s fourth floor.

Installation Images

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017. Work shown: Takashi Murakami, Starchild, 1992. Fabric and mixed media; 156 ¼ x 256 in. (397 x 650 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © 1992 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017. Work shown: Takashi Murakami, 69 Arhats Beneath the Bodhi Tree (detail), 2013. Acrylic, gold leaf, and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board; 10 panels, overall: 118 1/8 x 393 ¾ in. (300 x 1,000 cm). Collection Lune Rouge. © 2013 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017. Work shown: Takashi Murakami, Embodiment of "Um", 2014. FRP, stainless steel, zelkova wood, and acrylic; 169 1/4 x 103 3/8 x 99 5/8 in. (430 x 262.4 x 253 cm); unique. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo. © 2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017. Work shown: Takashi Murakami, The Octopus Eats its Own Leg (detail), 2017. Acrylic, gold leaf, and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel; 45 panels, overall: 256 x 1,378 in. (650 x 3,500 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin. © 2017 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, Jun 6–Sep 24, 2017

Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Funding

Lead support for Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is provided by Kenneth C. Griffin, Helen and Sam Zell, Anne L. Kaplan, Cari and Michael Sacks, Gallerie Perrotin, Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, Gagosian, Andrea and Jim Gordon, and Susan Gaspari-Forest and Robert Forest.

Major support is provided by Blum & Poe and Liz and Eric Lefkofsky.

Generous support is provided by The Bluhm Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Jennifer and Alec Litowitz, Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd., Adidas, Matt Bayer and Joyce Yaung and the Bayer Family Foundation, The Japan Foundation, Robert J. Buford, Marilyn and Larry Fields, Nancy Lerner Frej and David Frej, and Dana and Brian L. Newman.

Official Sponsor