Bright pinks, yellows and blues, along with walls of smiling flowers, offer an immediate invitation into the world of internationally renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
鈥淪tepping on the Tail of a Rainbow鈥� at the Cleveland Museum of Art explores themes of popular and consumer culture and draws inspiration from the worlds of anime and manga (comics and print cartoons) in Japan. The exhibit opens today to museum members, and to the public on May 25.
鈥淭akashi Murakami is one of the most recognized and celebrated artists working today,鈥� said Emily Liebert, the museum鈥檚 curator of contemporary art. 鈥淗e combines traditions and styles from the world of fine art and from commercial culture, and he inspires us to ask questions about where the boundaries between one ends and the other begins.鈥�
The exhibition, which originated at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, has several additions created specifically for Cleveland, notably a magnificent Japanese temple that鈥檚 taken shape in the museum鈥檚 light-filled atrium.
鈥淭his big architecture, especially for this show, the installation is Dream Temple,鈥� Murakami said. 鈥淭he Japanese say Yumedono is a very historical kind of temple ... created for Japan [by] Prince of Sh艒toku in the storyline of Japanese history.鈥�
Murakami collaborated with designers from the TV series 鈥淪h艒gun,鈥� a historical drama set in 1600s Japan, to recreate the Yumedono for the exhibition in Cleveland.
Inside the structure, four floor-to-ceiling paintings emerge from the darkness, creating an immersive experience within the temple鈥檚 walls.
鈥淚nside is four gods,鈥� Murakami said. 鈥淚t's the tiger and dragon and phoenix and the turtle. It came from Chinese mythology.鈥�
With the Yumedono as the starting point, the exhibit continues through two large lower-level galleries, taking guests through colorful rooms filled with cartoon-like characters and ending with the artist鈥檚 most recent works.
鈥淭he starting point is my early works,鈥� Murakami said. 鈥淚t's Mr. DOB (a signature character created by Murakami) and like, flower stuff. It looks like very bright characters. And then go through the show, and the end of the room is very dark.鈥�
In a gallery with black walls and low lighting, large-scale paintings explore themes of grief and human response to trauma.
A key example is Murakami鈥檚 2014 painting from which the exhibit draws its name. 鈥淚n the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow鈥� was inspired by the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Tohoku, Japan that also led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Spanning the length of one of the galleries, the 82-foot-long painting is one of the most impressive in the exhibition, Liebert said, and is part of a larger series of works connected to that disaster.
鈥淚n this exhibition, works from those series are combined with early works that refer to Japan in the wake of World War II, as well as more recent works that refer to the COVID-19 pandemic,鈥� Liebert said. 鈥淪o the works in the show are united by connections to these three global crises.鈥�
While Murakami鈥檚 work draws upon elements from traditional Japanese art and history, it鈥檚 still very much of the current moment, said Liebert, and creates a parallel to the museum鈥檚 extensive collection of Japanese art.
鈥淲ith Murakami's art, we have an opportunity to carry forward in time historical narratives that are in, for example, our Japanese galleries,鈥� Liebert said. 鈥淲hile our historical art in the museum's collection sheds new light on Takashi Murakami's art, his art allows us to see our historic collections in new ways.鈥�
鈥淪tepping on the Tail of a Rainbow鈥� continues through Sept. 7.
