This weekend saw the opening of a major Takashi Murakami exhibition at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. It’s the first such Murakami show of its kind at the museum, in spite of the Broad’s large, enviable number of the artist’s works currently in its permanent collection.
All but a handful of these have either been mostly hidden away in the Broad’s state-of-the-art storage facilities or presumably on loan to other institutions over the years. This show is a more expansive survey that includes Murakami works on loan from other collections, too. (Pro tip: Visitors can spy the storage area through a large portal window in the stairwell that connects the lobby to the upper galleries.)
The museum usually has several epic Murakami pieces from that permanent collection on view front and center in the main gallery in what is arguably the Broad’s most coveted space. A hero of the show is a massive 82-foot long painting with a long title to match. It’s called “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,” from which the exhibition takes its title. (We cheekily posted about this painting here on Global Graphica a few years ago.) It’s usually displayed on two perpendicular walls that form a corner. But for this show the Broad’s curators have mounted the painting on a single wall. No small feat, to be sure.
We’re visiting the show later this week, and we’re super excited. Murakami is among a handful of contemporary Japanese artists whose work we’ve followed closely for over two decades now. We will report back on what we saw with lots of photos. Check this space again next week!
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 