My Lonesome Cowboy 1998

Takashi Murakami made this cowboy sculpture, which may or may not be lonesome. It’s this shiny, cartoonish figure, almost like a manga character come to life. And what is this material? Is it plastic, fiberglass, or resin? I can’t tell, but it has this sleek, artificial sheen that makes it feel hyper-real and totally fake at the same time. I wonder how Murakami arrived at this form? There's something unsettling and magnetic about the figure; an echo of Jeff Koons' work maybe. It's like Murakami is asking, “What does it mean to be an artist in a world saturated with images, where the line between high and low culture is totally blurred?” It's a dare to the viewer, a big, bright, shiny provocation.