Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg

June 10, 2018 - September 16, 2018
TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG

Takashi Murakami
Tan Tan Bo Puking - a.k.a. Gero Tan, 2002
Acrylic on canvas mounted on board
141 ¾ x 283 ½ x 3 in. (360 x 720 x 7.7 cm)
Private collection, courtesy of Galerie Perrotin. © 2002 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Image copyright: Photo: Adam Reich

June 10, 2018 - September 16, 2018

Known for his collaborations with pop icons 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. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the exhibition is a major retrospective of his paintings, featuring fifty works that span three decades of his career, from the artist’s earliest mature works 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.

VISIT THE MODERN SHOP for exhibition merchandise.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with original essays by the show’s curator, Michael Darling, and Michael Dylan Foster, Chelsea Foxwell, Reuben Keehan, and Akira Mizuta Lippit, as well as excerpts of previously published writing by Murakami translated from the original Japanese.

The works in this gallery include graphic sexual content.
Warning, this exhibition contains bold and reflective patterns that may cause seizures for those who have photosensitive epilepsy that is triggered by visual stimuli.

 

The Modern is closed Mondays and holidays, including July 4, Independence Day,

 

Admission Prices*
$16: General (age 18 and above)
$12: Seniors (age 60+), Active/Retired Military Personnel & First Responders with ID
$10: Students with ID
Free: Under 18 years old

PLEASE NOTE:
During the exhibition TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG, on view June 10 through September 16, 2018, the Museum will offer half-price tickets on Sundays and free admission on Fridays. 
We will not offer free admission on Sundays or half-price admission on Wednesdays during this exhibition.
*Changes effective June 10, 2018

 

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

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, Galerie 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., 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.

Support for the presentation of Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg in Fort Worth is generously provided by the Kleinheinz Family Endowment for the Arts and Education and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP, the Dee J. Kelly Foundation, Southwest Bank, and the Fort Worth Promotion & Development Fund. The exhibition is also supported in part by a grant from the Fort Worth Tourism Public Improvement District.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG

Takashi Murakami
Flower Ball (Lots of Colors), 2008
Acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board
59 in. (150 cm) diameter
Cari and Michael J. Sacks © 2008 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Image copyright: Photo: Nathan Keay

Takashi Murakami
Tan Tan Bo Puking - a.k.a. Gero Tan, 2002
Acrylic on canvas mounted on board
141 ¾ x 283 ½ x 3 in. (360 x 720 x 7.7 cm)
Private collection, courtesy of Galerie Perrotin. © 2002 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Image copyright: Photo: Adam Reich