At over eleven feet tall, Takashi Murakami’s acrylic on canvas remake of Utagawa Hiroshige’s 1857 woodblock print featuring a bridge and a samurai neighborhood in Edo (later Tokyo) makes a dramatic statement at the entrance to his current show at Gagosian Gallery. Drawing on Hiroshige’s mid-19th century ‘100 Famous Views of Edo,’ Murakami creates his copies with silkscreen and acrylic paint and fills in details that the much smaller originals lack. In some iterations of the prints, Murakami adds in tiny versions of his characteristic colorful manga-inspired figures. The show includes replica of paintings by Van Gogh and Monet, both of whom were deeply influenced by the popularity of Japanese prints in 19th century Paris, highlighting the importance of influence and imitation in art history. Ironically, the notion of copying even extends to the carp banners depicted in this print, which represent civilian versions of military streamers. (On view in Chelsea through July 11th.)
