Yasumasa Morimura
Yasumasa Morimura, born in 1951 (age 63) in Osaka, Japan, began taking art classes at the Kyoto City University focusing on culture and iconic artworks, graduating in 1978 later moving to America to study further at Columbia University. To start off his career he focused on appropriation of western iconography, which is how he began his art making practices. Morimura considers the artworks of the past as an inspiration to his artworks and takes in great detail of the influences of the western past.
Artwork: Mona Lisa In Its Origins
Artist: Yasumasa Morimura 77.47 X 54.61 cm Year: 1998 Artwork: The first artwork (above on the left) - Mona Lisa in Its Origin - is an appropriation of the world famous painting of the Mona Lisa but instead; Morimura has used his own face, hands and props to recreate the artwork in his own interpretation. Morimura incorporates technology into each of his artworks to perfect each ‘recreation’ he makes. The artwork Morimura has created addresses and questions audiences as to why this is viewed as one of the most famous artworks in the world; it also confronts western pop culture to exploit traditional ideas in modern society. Artist: Morimura uses himself in the famous artwork of the Mona Lisa, which is symbolic in a way that intrigues audiences to reflect on the meaning of the particular qualities that are circulated in contemporary art today. He intentionally makes his artworks very distinct and noticeable to captivate audiences. We understand Morimura is trying to ask why only western culture art is included in art history and not Asian cultural art, which is why he places his face into these commonly known artworks of traditional western culture. He worried at first that the western culture would have a negative impact on his artworks but instead he used these cultural aspects to his advantage to create a very strong message. World: For Morimura to prepare himself for this character, he thoroughly analysed the original painting of the Mona Lisa. To fully understand the artwork, Morimura took into detail what life was like during this period to connect with the artwork and portrait the Mona Lisa in his own personal way, which is his world influence on his art making. A different detail in the artwork is; one of the eyes in the ‘recreation’ is staring directly into the lens, where as the other is staring slightly to the left. I believe the reason Morimura included a new outlook on the famous focal point of the artwork was to identify the representation of the eyes in ‘Mona Lisa in Its Origin’ artwork in a completely different way to how audiences perceived the original Mona Lisa painting. |
Artwork: An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns)
Artist: Yasumasa Morimura 120.02 cm x 95.89 cm Year: 2001 Artwork: The second artwork Morimura has appropriated (above on the right) called ‘An Inner Dialogue With Frieda Kahlo’ - which is a reformation of the famous self-portrait of Frieda Kahlo surrounded by animals and nature - Morimura embraced the life of Frieda Kahlo in extreme measures in depth. To indulge himself in the vivid and agonising life of Frieda Kahlo, he had to view all aspects and influences of the artwork. Morimura defined the artworks created by Kahlo as - "fierce and intense manifestation of human sentiments and universal themes, such as joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, beauty, life, and love." Morimura worked for ten years to precisely appropriate the artwork into his own to attempt to captivate the audience with a new postmodern take on the traditionally recognised artwork by Kahlo using stylistic conventions such as make up, wax, props and costume to properly fulfil the artwork. Audience: The audience’s opinion on Morimura’s reinterpretation of Frieda Kahlo had numerous impacts, being viewed as a humorous mock of the original artwork brining parody and satire to the serious original portrait of Frieda Kahlo, where as others viewed his artworks as the work of an ingenious cultural interpreter fascinated in reinventing and imitating Western themes from an Asian approach. What makes Morimura’s artworks so intriguing is that it makes audiences contemplate Morimura’s intuition in his art making and why he uses his own face to refabricate traditional western artworks to manipulate conceptions of beauty. Audience: Morimura’s art exhibitions helped to sustain his status as one of Japan’s most advanced modern day artists. Incorporating photography, painting, and digital technology editing, created a visual language for art critics to decipher the meaning put into the artworks by Morimura based on his ideology and aesthetic response to the western culture. He confronts audiences from all corners of the world to reinvent your outlook of traditional art works in western and contemporary society, to make us (the audience) reflect in greater complexity as to why a painting is perceived as beauty. Frames: I believe the frames that are best suited to Yasumasa Morimura, are Postmodern and Cultural, as he takes into detail the influences of the traditional western artworks and use these artworks to his advantage as an appropriation with a new contemporary and postmodern perspective. The audience views his works as a creation of parody but not only does he do this but he intrigues audiences to question the cultural perspective and why it is popular. |