Gagosian will host Takashi Murakami’s visual essay on inheritance

Takashi Murakami will debut his new exhibition JAPONISME → Cognitive Revolution: Learning from Hiroshige at Gagosian’s West 21st Street gallery in New York, running from May 8th to July 12th, 2025. This exhibition showcases 121 new and recent works that reflect Murakami’s deep engagement with the ukiyo-e tradition, particularly Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo. The artist’s reinterpretations of these iconic prints are enriched with his own characters and elements from other ukiyo-e masters, exploring themes of cultural exchange and artistic influence.

Murakami extends this dialogue by reworking European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings that were inspired by Japanese art during the 19th-century Japonisme movement. His interpretation of James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge highlights the connection between Western art and traditional Japanese techniques, particularly the use of flat color and asymmetrical composition.

The exhibition also features Murakami’s reflections on the Louis Vuitton brand, reimagining the origins of its iconic logo and checkerboard motif in traditional Japanese kamon (family crests) and the Ichimatsu pattern. These new paintings continue the artist’s ongoing exploration of the interplay between influence, originality, and cultural identity.