Red Demon and Blue Demon With 48 Arhats 2013

Takashi Murakami made this painting, Red Demon and Blue Demon With 48 Arhats, and immediately I want to know - how long did it take? How many hands were involved? Just look at the density of all those figures. I can imagine Murakami planning and plotting, working with assistants, carefully constructing the composition of demons and Arhats. This could have been a huge, complex project. It reminds me that so much of painting is just labor, you know? A kind of endurance test where you have to keep going, keep pushing, keep building. I mean, look at those colours. The red and blue of the demons against the psychedelic pop background. And then those 48 Arhats in the foreground, each one different, each one painted with such detail. He’s got that flat cartoonish style that’s all his own. It's a bold, energetic work that speaks to art’s possibilities.