There are a whole lot of reasons I could give you for living in New York City. The fresh air, the friendly people, the wildlife, but my favorite reason for living here in New York City is the abundance of museums and cultural institutions. Without these facilities New York City would be just like the place all these hipsters vacated to come here. Prah’lee some crappy ‘burg in Ohio.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art along with the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the Brooklyn Central library at Grand Army Plaza make this one stretch of Eastern Parkway possibly the most culturally diverse corridor in the entire city. The library and the gardens are both gravy to the museum. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has a tremendous Egyptian art collection to rival even the city’s most formidable archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Plus the BMA has a sweet collection of art from the rest of the African continent along with some great pieces from African American artists.
This KEHINDE WILEY painting greets visitors in the main lobby. I like WILEY’s work because he frames Black men in triumphant and majestic poses. My lady doesn’t care for his shit because he is a fruitbag and he more than likely paints his paramours.
The big event this past weekend wasn’t just the usual First Saturday party that the museum throws. The opening of an exhibit by the renowned Japanese pop culture artist TAKASHI MURAKAMI has drawn all kinds of acclaim to the museum. Earlier this week the museum threw a private bash for their donors where it was rumored that KanYe West performed.
The opening has also drawn its share of critics as well since one of the biggest donors plans to redevelop a vast plot of acres several blocks from the museum’s steps (*more on this later this week*). There were also some protests from groups who don’t feel like public facilities should be used to promote and distribute privately held brands. MURAKAMI has designed a series of handbags for Louis Vuitton and there was a pop up shop for the luxury goods maker inside of the exhibit. I didn’t really feel a kind of way about this although in the overall sense I felt like we had come to the edge of reasons that a museum should exist for when we are selling luxury key fobs from Louis Vuitton. In the post-literate society that we live in isn’t a book enough of a luxury item?
Anyhoo…
The MURAKAMI exhibit was interesting and full of excitement and movement. I had never really studied dude’s work except for the popular stuff that you see on the internets. Seeing his painting up close and in person I really got a better understanding for sonn’s artwork. This dude MURAKAMI is fucked the fuck up in the membrane. Sonn might have been abused as a child on some pr0nographic type shit. His paintings and sculptures are rife with phallic imagery and death. Both surreal and grotesque.
Who am I to bust this guy’s hump over the subject matter he chooses to paint? Japanese folks did get their asses blasted to smithereens some fifty years ago and for those people that remember the event it might still be fresh in their pathology. That is what I translated from the images of mushrooms adorned with all-seeing eyes and decorated with skulls. MURAKAMI’s use of color is a really neat diversion too. You think that the scene your viewing is happy, but actually it’s a macabre story of decaptiation.
I see a lot of parallels in his paintings that coincide with the economic downturn here in the U.S. As we march happily along our debt piles up to the point of crushing us where we stand. At least some of us will have a brightly colored satchel to carry into Hades.
Hell in a handbasket, but not just any old bag, a TAKASHI MURAKAMI x LOUIS VUITTON handbasket.
Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy dandied up this brother’s vines in order to sell their crap.
A section from one of my favorite pieces had these images throwing up into the mouths of characters below. Methinks that 2girls1cup owes this man some guap.
This security guard was hiding behind a grotesque sculpture waiting to pounce on anyone taking pictures.
DP, 40 DAWG and TY the emcee
ThinkTank Marketing along with some of Brooklyn’s finest
My PARDON ME DUKE family
I know that I don’t have any pics of the hot ladies that were in the building, and trust me, to get all of these negroes out of their mother’s basements there had to be a grip of ladies, but Chocolate Snowflake was on my arm and that shit is unnecessary bad form to be staring at broads when you are out on the town with your bottom bi-. Nah’mean?!?
Blu Cheez Photo Gallery: TAKASHI MURAKAMI EXHIBIT @ THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART
Homegirl came with KanYe.
