Melting DOB C 1999

Takashi Murakami made this painting, Melting DOB C, with smooth gradients of acrylic on canvas. What a trip, right? When I look at this painting, I feel like I am falling down the rabbit hole with Alice. I can imagine Murakami in his studio layering these slick shapes and colors, thinking about Pop Art, maybe even Disney, but also something darker, with all those eyes, and those teeth! There's something about how the forms repeat and morph that reminds me of my own process. How a painting evolves through layers of gestures, each one building upon the last. The lettering seems to drip like some kind of consumerist nightmare or hallucination. The color here has so much vibrancy that it's hard to believe it’s on canvas. The intensity and complexity of the cartoonish figure keeps you looking, questioning, and feeling a bit overwhelmed. It’s like art history, anime, and advertising all at once. It’s a conversation, where artists riff off each other across time.