Though these works are meant to show Murakami’s inclusion in this lineage, the exhibition on the whole privileges Murakami’s work allowing the historic pieces to get lost along the way. W hile these images are prominently displayed, some, such as the folding screens in the Kazari room, become overshadowed by the work of Murakami (fig. Placed within the same narrative space to create this lineage, the permanent collection works are grouped together in six categories: Superflat, Animation, Kazari, Asobi, Religiosity, and Eccentricity. The exhibition provides a plethora of examples of some of the finest works of Japanese art, and makes the argument that Murakami, if not a part of this “Lineage of Eccentrics,” has taken inspiration from them. While the selection of over thirty of the MFA’s exemplary pieces of Japanese masterpieces is stunning, many of them are overshadowed by Murakami’s extravagantly large (and social media worthy) images. The exhibition attempts to place Murakami’s work within a long historical lineage of Japanese artists who strayed away from tradition. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s exhibition Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics, organized in collaboration with Japanese art historian Professor Nobuo Tsuji, combines the contemporary art of Takashi Murakami with that of the MFA’s permanent Japanese art collection.

Volume 4, issue 2 Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics Figure 1.

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