Murakami' s gets super heavy. Hot off the trail of his collaboration with Kanye West and the follow up to his personal Super Flat book, this Copyright Murakami book exposes the major works and practices of his pop art empire. The book itself was revealed at MOCA Los Angeles along with an exhibit of his most important works, new and old. Important, such as the larger than life scuplture of the lactating titty lady, the sculpture of the jizz king, the transformable nymph sculpture, jellyfish eyes painting, and eye frying murals of cartoon psychedlia... sounds silly right? Well, it is - kinda. MOCA analyzes every work with a scrutinous eye and academic detail. Just like Warhol's Campbell soup paintings and Jeff Koon's inflatable pool toys sculptures Murakami knows no boundary between commercial and fine art culture. I guess that's what makes him "one of post-war Japan's most important contemporary artists." Over 300 pages with detailed text, studio insights, theory, full color photography of his works with 3 page fold outs of his largest paintings. Get familiar.

reviewed by Cmish