Melting DOB C 1999

Takashi Murakami made *Melting DOB C* as part of an ongoing project, using flat colour and bold lines. Isn’t the surface slick? The application of paint is so smooth, and the colours so vibrant, that it almost feels like looking at a digital screen. The textures are all implied, but it’s how Murakami plays with the high and low, the saccharine and the grotesque, that gets me. Look at the layers, how the blue seems to seep into the red, giving a sense of depth to an otherwise flat plane, which is weirdly disturbing and joyous at the same time! Then there's those eyes, so many of them, following you around the room! Murakami’s work seems to draw on the aesthetics of Warhol while anticipating the digital art that was yet to come. He’s part of an art conversation that’s constantly evolving, where nothing is too serious to be played with and everything is fair game.