Even from first encounter does the museum juxtapose new upon old. An immense columned structure, the prior museum, is fronted with a crescent, glass atrium covering what one can only imagine was a huge grand staircase. Upon further exploration, there is a reflection pool at one end and a
rainbow of cement and green grass extendin zen serenity out into the city block. Yet, names chiseled above gargoyles on the old structure read Aristotle, Socrates, Mohamed. Once inside, the atrium partners traditional stone sculptures with the fiberglass of Murikami. Age-old myths of pegases and men contrasting today's fiction of anime.
I visited the museum once before, for a graffiti exhibit in 2006. But the special exhibition of Takashi Murakami inspired my friends and me to visit today. His first pieces in the atrium are huge fiberglass installations of fictional bubble-like characters. Jelly-fish figures of all colors, one on top of the other, equally innocent and yet psychedelic.
Up into the exhibit, the opening is a five-story cylindrical expanse. On display, three figures, all the same woman. The first she is upright, all curves with a tiny waist, huge hair, painted all sorts of colors. In a outfit ready for battle, she is a comic book warrior. In the next, her body parts contorted like a Transformer, she is changing into something. The third, she is a jet. Her female parts the nose of the fighter, her legs tucked underneath, her hair the wings, her are feet pointed at the back, the tail. Honestly, I'd never thought about my body as a fighter jet until right then. Fully multi-media, there is also a showing of Murakami's film work, coupled in one short film with Kanye West, as well as his bag designs for Louis Vuitton. He is the epitome of art in commerce. Or commerce in art.We also visited a feminist exhibit and Japanese prints. In the feminist exhibition, a huge dining room was erected, the artist's impressions of the place settings famous women would have, Georgia O'Keefe, for example. Ironic. A feminist artist using such a home ec display to represent her celebration of and homage to women. The table is a huge triangle, too. There is no head of the table.
I loved the Japanese prints most of all. The sketch feeling, yet the work is so intricate and rich in color.
Of all the art I've seen today, these may be my most favorite, or most near to my heart. They inspire the notion of romance, a life of tranquility, enjoyment, struggle, fighting for love and honor, and even still beauty.
