Last weekend we visited the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit, "The Octopus Easts Its Own Leg." Murakami is Japanese, and his work is an exhilarating blend of ancient and modern, Asian and Western, pop culture and fine art. Many of his pieces feature vibrant anime-inspired characters. It was a fascinating exhibit.
The exhibit starts in a first floor gallery, with two huge temple guard/demon figures and two huge, wildly textured paintings:
After the first gallery you walk up the stairs to the second level of the museum. The hallway has been covered in tentacles:
And at the top of the stairs you find the octopus.
The octopus is covered with layers of paint and lots of graffiti:
Several of the galleries featured both freestanding figures and wildly textured murals. The large panels of the murals are both silk screened and painted:
This is a self-portrait of Murakami. You have to love his sense of humor:
The paintings were wild. They all had beautifully textured, layered backgrounds. The figures on top were, well, weird but strangely fascinating. And some had owls! I like owls:
This is a Chinese lion on a bridge of skulls:
Floating, slightly grotesque figures:
The exhibit was both weird and wonderful. I enjoyed it immensely. It will be at the Modern through September 16.
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