Weapon Art!

In the same style as the Christian Louboutin ad campaign, except here it is not fashion, but weapons. The Russian based illustration studio Geliographic decided to mix classic still life paintings, with modern weapons. An interesting mix that grabbed yout attention!

Murakami Paints Himself Warhol

Warhol/Silver, 2009. Takashi Murakami/ KaiKai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris.

It's generally regarded as simplistic to call Takashi Murakami the "Japanese Andy Warhol." Murakami's puns on pop art are so deliberate as to be readily identified as red herrings, and exclude the themes of labor and ethnography.

Of course Murakami encourages the comparison, and by way of so emphatically insisting that there is no difference between himself and Warhol, demonstrates there are a few difference—and the conditions why that must be so. Murakami's latest solo show at Emanuel Perrotin in Paris, of works he calls "Self-Portraits," includes several pieces that are direct homage to Warhol himself. Two large tondos face each other; titled "Warhol/Silver" and "Warhol/Gold," they even make reference by title, and feature Murakami's signature, saccharine, anime characters. But Murakami gets its all wrong, conflating Warhol's flower series with his Gold Marilyns, and rendering all of it an artful pastiche. That same abstract gold and silver background is also a reference to the 19th Century Nihonga style, itself an industrialized interpretation of tradition Japan. "I Recall The Time When My Feet Lifted Off The Ground, Ever So Slightly—Kôrin—Chrysanthemum," depicts flowers as classical Japanese engravings, over creates a paint-splattered background equal parts samurai flick and woodblock print. Caricature and mass-produced posters are folded into one shiny whole.

It's the repetition and the interest in merging business and art along the lines of mass production—that so echo Warhol. Warhol would have loved the Murakami for Louis Vuitton—even if they were limited edition. But with contemporary Japan as his context, Murakami demonstrates the rise of mass customization over mass production, and the reincarnation of repetition as a type of uniqueness in art.

David Spiller's Pop Art

David Spiller has made a solid lifetime career from his "keen eye and ear for the lyrical phrases and comic book ephemera of popular culture". His iconic paintings synthesize the best of Americana, he admits, "The words just come. And sometimes they're pure Bob Dylan, and then a bit of me. But that's just because I've got a bad memory, as I've already said. If you can think of a way of saying "I love you' that hasn't already been said in a song by Dylan or the Beatles.. well, I'm not sure you can really improve on it - there's very little left to say".

Though I wouldn't think twice but to call what Spiller does Pop Art, it seems that he is not fond of that label, "it's not tough enough", said the artist. I would strongly disagree with that, Pop Art is our art, more people I know have Pop Art on their walls than Rembrandt's or Goya's. And Though you can argue that one is more accessible than the other, it's the art that is all around us, in our homes and on the streets, that sets the tone for our lives, so no I don't agree that Pop Art is "not tough enough". Pop Art is Tough!