FOR 10/12

MOCA TO PRESENT TAKASHI MURAKAMI RETROSPECTIVE w/1 cut

ak/gs set 10/4 #714810

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) will present a comprehensive retrospective of the work of internationally acclaimed artist Takashi Murakami, at the Geffen Contemporary, “© Murakami,”  October 29–February 11.

Born in Japan in the early 1960s, Murakami belongs to a generation of artists whose pictorial language brings together motifs linked to popular culture and the formal qualities of traditional Japanese art, such as flatness, pattern and ornamentation “© Murakami” features key selections that span Murakami’s entire career, including political works from the early 1990s, large-scale otaku-inspired figure projects of the late 1990s and the ongoing evolution of Murakami’s anime alter ego.

Organized and curated by MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel, “© Murakami” explores one of the most influential artists to emerge from postwar Japan. Much like Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, Murakami’s practice is not only referential of pop culture, but his entire life is symbiotic with pop itself, creating a reciprocal relationship between high art and mass culture.

More than 90 works in various media — painting, sculpture, installation and film — will be installed in three sections, occupying more than 35,000-square-feet of exhibition space. The first portion is an immersive, theatrically lit installation including many of Murakami’s sculptural figures.

The second portion of the exhibition will comprise a gridlike shelving display of all of Murakami’s merchandise. In addition, the highlight of this area will be a room showcasing the artist’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton. This room will display a range of handbags and accessories featuring Murakami’s brightly hued logo designs, which the artist created at the behest of Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director Marc Jacobs in 2002.

In the largest section of the exhibition, paintings and sculptures will be installed chronologically in ten white cubed rooms tracing Murakami’s artistic development inside MOCA’s warehouse atmosphere. Characterized by two distinct periods of the artist’s career, this portion of the exhibition highlights Murakami’s attempt to structure his own reality through an investigation of branding and identity in a selection of works created between 1991 and 2000, and the artist’s exploration of self through self-portraiture in works created since 2000.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 376-page hardcover catalog available at MOCA.

This exhibit will travel to the Brooklyn Museum, New York City; Museum for Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain.

MOCA is at 250 South Grand Avenue. For information, www.moca.org or 213-621-1749.