And Then Blue 1999

Takashi Murakami made "And Then Blue" and I'm really drawn to his hard-edged style. It's so cool how his art, like this piece, takes on commercial printing aesthetics, so flat and graphic. I find myself lost in the details, like how the different layers of color come together in the eye of the character and the silver background. The contrast between the matte finish of the figure and the speckled sheen of the silver makes the character pop! You can almost feel the physical depth. And that toothy grin, it's a little unsettling. It makes me think of Elizabeth Murray. While Murray's work is more abstract, there is a similar tension between playful cartoon-like forms and the more serious business of formal composition. Like all good art, this piece embraces ambiguity and multiple readings.