Takashi Murakami

Departing from his well-known utopian and dystopian themes—which feature masses of smiling flowers, elaborate scenes of cartoonish apocalypse, and the ever-morphing cult figures of Mr. DOB and Mr. Pointy—Murakami surprises here with a group of monumental portraits of Daruma, the grand patriarch of Zen art. Daruma was an Indian sage who lived during the fifth or sixth century CE and was the founder of Zen Buddhism. Legend has it that he attained enlightenment after sitting in meditation before the wall of the Shaolin monastery for nine years, without blinking his eyes. During this process, his arms and legs atrophied, withered, and fell off. In today’s Japan, Daruma’s continuing popularity as the embodiment of resilience and determination has given rise to an entire industry of good luck charms in the form of armless, legless, and eyeless dolls, available in endless variations. Murakami’s interpretations of the icon are similarly varied, fusing tradition with a heterogeneous range of artistic and cultural inspirations.

Zen’s assimilation into Japanese culture was accompanied by the introduction of green tea, which was used to ward off drowsiness during the lengthy zazen (seated meditation) sessions. The tea ceremony—which began as a sumptuous secular custom in the mercantile class and gradually evolved into an ascetic ritual that is practiced widely today in Japan—is still enacted in its original form in honor of Daruma in certain Japanese Zen monasteries. Embracing this tradition, Murakami will inaugurate his exhibition at Gagosian with a private traditional tea ceremony conducted by Sen So-oku, a descendant of Sen no Rikyu, the reverend sixteenth-century tea master.