When I close my eyes, I see Shangri-la. 2015

When describing the use of flowers in his work, Takashi Murakami states “at the beginning, to be frank, I didn’t like flowers, but as I continued teaching in the school, my feelings changed: their smell, their shape–it all made me feel almost physically sick, and at the same time I found them very ‘cute.’ Each one seems to have its own feelings, its own personality.” Here, “An Homage to Yves Klein, Multicolor A” reflects his oscillation between repulsion and adoration, as the intensely saturated pattern both overwhelms and excites in this homage to the Japanese era of tolerance, spanning from January 1789 through February 1801.