Takashi Murakami

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s versatile and unpretentious approach to art has created works spanning media from painting and sculpture to more commercialized art styles including fashion collaborations with global luxury brands like Louis Vuitton. He is most well-known for pioneering the ‘Superflat’ theory, defining the most memorable characteristics of Japanese art and tastes throughout history. His interpretation of the phenomenon involves using taboo elements and themes in pieces for the ‘high-art’ market, and his sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy (1998) showing a boy masturbating sold at Sotheby’s for $15.2 million in 2008.