Takashi Murakami at Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Peter Schjeldahl has a review of the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the New Yorker mag. The article is a good critical assessment of Murakami's art from a self confessed non fan. He says,

"And such tactile enhancements as scraped or drippy surfaces and applications of gold and platinum leaf, though often pretty, unwisely evoke painters who express feelings in what they do. Cynical artists should be careful not to remind us that we like sincerity, or, indeed, that it ever occurs. Most gravely, for me, Murakami seems temperamentally averse to a cardinal obligation of artists that Warhol, Koons, and Hirst accept: the duty to seduce. But to actively woo the eye and tantalize the mind implies the possible existence of resistant viewers."

I've felt this about Murakami's work since I saw the Gagosian exhibit last fall. Murakami is either going to double down on the art as product/commerce or at this point he might see the contrast between product and art. Is there a difference? Where are the boundaries?

Embedded Video

Blogged with the Flock Browser