727 1996

Takashi Murakami's '727' is a panel painting, and looking at it, I’m drawn to how he layers color, especially these translucent washes. It’s like he’s letting us peek into the painting's own making, which I always appreciate. The way the paint is worked feels almost like watercolor, bleeding into the canvas, then, WHAM, we get that graphic character floating on top! Look at how the white lines of the cloud seem to vibrate against the mottled purple background. I love the way the scary character is drawn with crisp outlines and teeth like arrowheads. Murakami's work often feels like a collision of high and low, tradition and pop. You could think of him as a modern-day Hokusai, playing with similar themes of nature and chaos, but filtered through a very contemporary, almost cartoonish lens. It’s like he's saying, "Why can't art be both serious and fun?" And honestly, why not?