Planet 66; Summer Vacation 2004

Takashi Murakami made ‘Planet 66; Summer Vacation’ in, well, sometime - it is undated. It's an image made with clean lines and colors, and that flatness kinda makes it pop. You know, like a cartoon but fancier, like a painting. The baby ghosts or whatever they are float like they’re swimming through the air, and their shapes are repeated with slight variations, which kinda gives the piece a rhythm. Down below are the flowers, each one different, all grinning at you, it's pretty joyful! I keep thinking about the way that bright blue is so flat, it’s like a wall. Then these cartoon figures press up against the picture plane. There's a little ghost character in the upper right, its got this long sort of sheet-like tail, and little round spectacles. It's so simple, yet so expressive, almost like a Cy Twombly scribble, in its simplicity. Murakami brings to mind other artists who use pop imagery, like Warhol. But in his own way, Murakami’s work is all about making art accessible, and I am here for that.