Takashi Murakami - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session New York Wednesday, November 14, 2018 | Phillips

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale,...

New York Auction 14 November 2018

  • Provenance

    Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Artist Biography

    Takashi Murakami

    Japanese • 1962

    Takashi Murakami is best known for his contemporary combination of fine art and pop culture. He uses recognizable iconography like Mickey Mouse and cartoonish flowers and infuses it with Japanese culture. The result is a boldly colorful body of work that takes the shape of paintings, sculptures and animations.

    In the 1990s, Murakami founded the Superflat movement in an attempt to expose the "shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture." The artist plays on the familiar aesthetic of mangas, Japanese-language comics, to render works that appear democratic and accessible, all the while denouncing the universality and unspecificity of consumer goods. True to form, Murakami has done collaborations with numerous brands and celebrities including Kanye West, Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams and Google.

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319

Takashi Murakami

Hey! We are skulls

signed, titled, inscribed and dated "May 2003 Hey! We are skulls Takashi Murakami and Kaikai Kiki & Chiso [in Japanese]" lower right
silk, wood, acid dyes, platinum foil and metal
image 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (40 x 40 cm.)
overall 51 1/8 x 20 3/8 in. (129.9 x 51.8 cm.)
Executed in 2003, this work is unique, and is accompanied by an artist's wood box.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Contact Specialist
Rebekah Bowling
Head of Day Sale, Afternoon Session
New York
+ 1 212 940 1250
rbowling@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session

New York Auction 14 November 2018