727×777 2016

This is one of Takashi Murakami’s paintings, and you can tell a lot about the artist just by looking at it. It's like a visual diary entry. The painting has these separate panels, with different colours and textures. I bet Murakami was building up the surface, layering and reworking. The monster motif with yin-yang eyes is playful and unnerving, a kind of self-portrait of the artist. It’s like he's saying, "Here I am, I contain multitudes!" It reminds me of Elizabeth Murray, who also painted on shaped canvases and brought a sense of humour to abstraction. These artists are never lonely, they are in a conversation with all the other artists that came before them, riffing on ideas, pushing boundaries, and making something new. Painting doesn’t tell you what to think; it gives you a space to feel and imagine.