Melting DOB A 1999

Takashi Murakami made this "Melting DOB A" sometime around now using what looks like silkscreen or some other kind of printmaking. The colors are super-saturated, bright, verging on hallucinatory. I’m interested in the relationship between the ground and the figure. That grey patterned background might seem flat, but it really pushes the character forward in space. The drips of blue and green look like shiny enamel paint, as if DOB is sweating or melting before our eyes. Everything is so smooth and tight, a real contrast to the sort of gestural painting I do. But the wobbly lines, the slightly off-register colors, and the sheer exuberance of the character give the work an interesting energy and life. I'm reminded of Elizabeth Murray's shaped canvases and her approach to cartoonish forms. There’s a lot of conversation going on in art and no one really knows what it all means, which is the fun of it.