Known his unique artistic styles, blending contemporary art with Japanese symbols and cultural references such as anime, manga, otaku and kawaii, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s exhibit Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow will be on display right here in Cleveland later this year.
The exhibit is a response to three major events that impacted Japanese culture: the United States-led atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II; the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident and was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan; and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Murakami explores the long-lasting impacts of these historical events, along with ideas of how trauma changes people, how these events led to a cultural shift and how modern obsessions such as metaverse, anime, manga and street fashion can be an entry point to engaging the past.
Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow was originally stationed at The Broad, a contemporary art museum based in Los Angeles. In the beginning of the pandemic, Murakami planned an exhibit at Japan’s Kyocera Museum of Art, where his artwork reflected on the city of Kyoto as the keeper of Japan’s cultural traditions including Kabuki theater, geisha, monumental screen painting and teahouse traditions. Selections of this new work will join the original exhibition.
The exhibit will feature wide pieces that span 30 feet, including a recreation of the Yumedono, which is Japanese for Dream Palace, from the Nara Horyuji Temple complex in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s atrium.
Tickets go on sale for CMA members on March 11, while nonmembers can purchase tickets starting March 18. Find more information at clevelandart.org.
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