{"data":{"id":229379,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/229379","is_boosted":false,"title":"Mr. Pointy","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBAAFAPQAAAICAQEBAgECAgICAgEDBAMEBAMEBQMEBgYEBAUFCBQZDwkKEAsMEhIXExcUERgUEyccKSIlIScoJDkjLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAEAAUAAAURYMIsR+E8hBBJgQFNCKA0QwgAOw==","width":5394,"height":7648,"alt_text":"Four distinct motifs, each abstract, colorful, and cartoonish, float sequentially, one on top of the other, against a shiny, black background. One looks like an expanding galaxy. The top one, a figure, has a squat body and a pointy head and is grinning."},"main_reference_number":"2015.147","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":2011,"date_end":2011,"date_display":"2011","date_qualifier_title":"Made","date_qualifier_id":4,"artist_display":"Takashi Murakami\nJapanese, born 1962","place_of_origin":null,"description":"<p>Rising to prominence in the 1990s, Takashi Murakami skillfully mixes Japanese pop culture, anim\u00e9, and cartoon aesthetics into a new form of global pop art. At once an artist and a businessman, his large-scale paintings and sculptures are as well known as his mass-produced trinkets and collaborations with Louis Vuitton. However, both practices disclose his persistent and tempered engagement with art-historical precedents set by Pop Art. In 2000 Murakami coined the term \u201csuperflat\u201d to describe not only his art practice and that of his Japanese contemporaries but also a larger cultural shift toward the \u201cextremely two-dimensional.\u201d While this sensibility is most present in Japanese anim\u00e9, Murakami asserts it is a worldwide phenomenon. According to Murakami\u2019s own \u201cSuperflat Manifesto,\u201d the phrase accounts for the way in which different layers of culture, especially high and low, \u201cfuse into one.\u201d <em>Mr. Pointy<\/em> embodies the concept of superflat. The character combines religious iconography taken from sources as diverse as Mayan culture, Tibetan Buddhism, and the Thousand-Armed Buddha (<em>Kannon<\/em> in Japanese) with a cartoon style. <em>Mr. Pointy<\/em> was devised by Murakami in 2003 and has since been repeatedly rendered in paintings, mass-market prints, and sculptures.<\/p>\n","short_description":"Takashi Murakami skillfully mixes Japanese pop culture, anim\u00e9, and cartoon aesthetics into a new form of global pop art. Both an artist and a businessman, he creates large-scale paintings and sculptures, animation, and merchandise, including a fashion collaboration with Louis Vuitton. The character of Mr. Pointy was devised by Murakami in 2003 and has since been repeatedly rendered in paintings, mass-market prints, and sculptures.","dimensions":"350 \u00d7 247.4 cm (137 13\/16 \u00d7 97 7\/16 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":247,"height":350,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Acrylic on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"James Rondeau, Edlis\/Neeson Collection: The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2015), 8 (color ill. detail), 78, 79, pl. 32 (color ill.), 113, n. 40, 118, 131.","exhibition_history":"None to date.","provenance_text":"The artist; sold through Galerie Perrotin, Paris, to Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, Chicago, May 7, 2011 [copy of invoice in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 21, 2015.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":246,"fiscal_year":2015,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":false,"max_zoom_window_size":1280,"copyright_notice":"\u00a92011 Takashi Murakami\/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin","has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":27.5358,"color":{"h":349,"l":34,"s":91,"percentage":0.010621559781017188,"population":107},"latitude":41.8803742611583,"longitude":-87.6217526021691,"latlon":"41.880374261158,-87.621752602169","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 295","gallery_id":25471,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Contemporary Art","department_id":"PC-8","artist_id":77705,"artist_title":"Takashi Murakami","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[77705],"artist_titles":["Takashi Murakami"],"category_ids":["PC-8","PC-836"],"category_titles":["Contemporary Art","Contemporary works by BIPOC artists, summer 2021"],"term_titles":["acrylic paintings (visual works)","21st Century","Pop Art","painting"],"style_id":"TM-12913","style_title":"21st Century","alt_style_ids":["TM-7221"],"style_ids":["TM-12913","TM-7221"],"style_titles":["21st Century","Pop Art"],"classification_id":"TM-10368","classification_title":"acrylic paintings (visual works)","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9"],"classification_ids":["TM-10368","TM-9"],"classification_titles":["acrylic paintings (visual works)","painting"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":[],"subject_titles":[],"material_id":null,"alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":[],"material_titles":[],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":["Contemporary works by BIPOC artists, summer 2021"],"image_id":"5fa7667c-0e32-1c68-7495-5d8615ef7d4a","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["2015.147"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Mr. Pointy"],"weight":11134,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-07-02T12:11:33-05:00","updated_at":"2026-07-02T15:34:10-05:00","timestamp":"2026-07-12T01:54:35-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.14"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}