Why is the Doraemon collection important?

This collection captures the essence of Murakami’s unique artistic style. Murakami is known for his collection of recurring motifs, with smiling flowers, mushrooms, skulls and cartoon characters reappearing throughout his artworks. The cartoons that fill Doraemon’s body in these prints frequently appear in other of Murakami’s prints and have become closely associated with the artist’s name.

How do I buy a Doraemon print?

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How can I sell my Doraemon print?

If you're looking to sell art by Takashi Murakami, click the link and we can help. We employ a number of techniques and practices in order to give a realistic and achievable valuation on any art listed on myartbroker.com. We analyse the demand for the work in question, take into consideration previous sales and auction valuations, we assess the current gallery valuation and monitor the current deals taking place via MyArtBroker every day. We regularly advise sellers on a price bracket for their artwork completely free of charge.

Doraemon by Takashi Murakami Background & Meaning

Doraemon

Takashi Murakami’s Doraemon collection features the outline of the titular character, an earless robotic cat from a popular manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio. Murakami fills the cartoon character’s body with a variety of his own cartoon characters, creating a cheerful tribute to the pop-culture influence of manga on his acclaimed work.

Meaning & Analysis

The Doraemon collection produced by the critically acclaimed Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, consists of a variety of prints all of which feature the outline of Doraemon, the earless robotic cat from the popular manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. Murakami fills the cartoon character’s body with an array of other cartoon characters, all rendered in bright and bold colours.

Murakami is an advocate of art being for the people. As well as producing limited edition prints that sell for high six figure sums, Murakami also designs products for the public to buy. Murakami has designed a range of products, from key chains to T-shirts, stuffed toys and pillows. While the artist has been criticised for selling these products as a means of making money, Murakami’s merchandise is a way of democratising art, and ensuring that it is accessible to all.

Like Andy Warhol’s New York studio, The Factory, Murakami has a factory-size studio, known ‘Kaikai Kiki’ where he is accompanied by a team of over 100 technicians who help him produce his artworks. The people employed by Kaikai Kiki receive rigorous training in print making and design, with their final test being a task in which they must paint a perfect cartoon mushroom, a trademark feature of Murakami’s visual language. As well as being a proponent of art for the masses, Murakami believes that art should be a collaborative process, like filmmaking. Murakami’s team of technicians are integral to his artistic process and are always credited in his works.

This collection captures the essence of Murakami’s unique artistic style. Murakami is known for his collection of recurring motifs, with smiling flowers, mushrooms, skulls and cartoon characters reappearing throughout his artworks. The cartoons that fill Doraemon’s body in these prints frequently appear in other of Murakami’s prints and have become closely associated with the artist’s name.
The collection reflects Murakami’s love of Japanese popular culture. From a young age, Murakami was a fan of anime and manga (Japanese cartoons and comics) and this passion shines through in the Doraemon prints which are inspired by the successful series about a cat who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a boy named Nobita Nobi. The artist hoped to work in the animation industry, however when he attended Tokyo University of the Arts, he majored in ‘nihonga’, the traditional style of Japanese painting, as opposed to animation. Murakami continued to hone his artistic talents, learning more about traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and subjects by completing a Master’s and PhD in nihonga. Murakami, however, became disillusioned with the insular and political nature of the art world, which led him to distance himself from the traditional painting style and prompted his experimentation with contemporary artistic styles, as exemplified in this collection of prints.
Taking inspiration from a manga series that received critical acclaim and was a hit all over Asia reflects how Murakami incorporates popular or ‘low’ culture into his artworks which, due to their success on the art market, are elevated to the realm of ‘high’ culture. Murakami’s fusion of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture means the artist is often compared to Andy Warhol, the father of the Pop Art movement, who mass produced prints of consumer goods like Campbell’s soup cans, demonstrating that art can be for everyone, not just the art world elite.
If you're looking to sell art by Takashi Murakami, click the link and we can help. We employ a number of techniques and practices in order to give a realistic and achievable valuation on any art listed on myartbroker.com. We analyse the demand for the work in question, take into consideration previous sales and auction valuations, we assess the current gallery valuation and monitor the current deals taking place via MyArtBroker every day. We regularly advise sellers on a price bracket for their artwork completely free of charge.