The broad announces two spring special exhibitions Takashi Murakami: stepping on the tail of a rainbow and this is not America’s flag, opening May 21, 2022

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

All Broad Collection Works by Murakami Will Be on View for the Artist’s First Solo Exhibition at The Broad
This Is Not America’s Flag Will Spotlight Artists Confronting the Complexity and Contradictions of National Identity

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 14, 2022) – #thebroad is pleased to announce two new exhibitions, Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow and This Is Not America’s Flag, both running from May 21 to September 25, 2022. Murakami’s first monograph exhibition at the museum will feature 18 works, as well as immersive environments developed in tandem with the artist and his studio, Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., and will include the entirety of The Broad’s collection of the artist’s works. Featuring over twenty artists, This Is Not America’s Flag will spotlight the myriad ways artists explore the symbol of the flag of the United States of America, underscoring its vast, divergent, and complex meanings. Additionally, Murakami’s exhibition will coincide with the release of a catalogue that considers the artist’s practice through #thebroad collection and key loans. Published by DelMonico Books, #thebroad, and Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., the catalogue will feature essays by #thebroad Curator Ed Schad, Pico Iyer, and a conversation with Murakami.
“Artworks in these exhibitions speak to recovery, resistance, and even beauty in the face of deep social and environmental upheaval,” said #thebroad Founding Director #joanneheyler.
“Our dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19 lay bare many myths embedded in modern American identity. This Is Not America’s Flag contemplates the state of national symbolism, shines light on U.S. history and present, and questions perceptions, asking vital questions about what we stand for as individuals and as a society. Takashi Murakami’s work likewise reflects within its complex iconography a response to times of crisis and uncertainty, whether connected to postwar Japan or the Fukushima nuclear disaster. By re-visiting some of his most beloved and well-known works, contextualized within onsite environments developed for #thebroad, the logic of Murakami’s work in Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow offers an inspiring sense of continuity and history, and beauty during times of trouble.”
The Broad will release timed tickets for access to both exhibitions at ticketing.thebroad.org on Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for students (with valid studentID), free for children 17 and under, and will include same-day general admission to The Broad’s third floor galleries, which feature a frequently changing selection of works from #thebroad collection, one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and #contemporaryart. Additional times for free access will be announced.
Murakami’s exhibition will allow museum visitors to experience his expansive artistic universe, with both recent works and ones from earlier in his career. Exploring subject matter such as globalization, postwar Japan, pop culture, and religious iconography, the works will span sculpture, painting, wallpaper, and immersive installations. At the heart of the presentation will be two of the artist’s monumental paintings, 100 Arhats (2013) and In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow (2014), 32-feet wide and 82-feet wide respectively. Also on view will be the 1999 sculpture DOB in the Strange Forest (Blue DOB), which features Murakami’s iconic anime-inspired character Mr. DOB, one of many figures that the artist has created throughout his career. Titled after Alfredo Jaar’s iconic 1987 work, A Logo for America, This Is Not America’s Flag will provide a critical discourse on the symbol’s meaning, the complexity and contradictions of contemporary national identity, and artists as active citizens. The exhibition was launched conceptually in the summer of 2020 during the groundswell of activism for racial justice in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and was inspired by two works in #thebroad collection, Flag (1967) by Jasper #johns and African-American Flag (1990) by #davidhammons. Presenting works from over twenty artists including #lauraaguilar, #nicoleeisenman, #jeffreygibson, #hammons, #jaar, #johns, and #hankwillisthomas, the exhibition includes works that both embrace the flag as the signifier of the nation and its ideals and subvert it—often simultaneously—to express injustices and inequities woven into the fabric of the country, past and present. Murakami Exhibition Publication The accompanying catalogue that will share its name with the exhibition will be published in May 2022 by #thebroad with cooperation from Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. and DelMonico Books. Introducing readers to Murakami through The Broad’s substantial collection, the book will feature twelve collection works and key loans including his early sculpture Flower Matango (b) (2001-2006) and 100 Arhats (2013). Accompanying an essay by Ed Schad, works such as Hustle'n'Punch By Kaikai And Kiki (2009), Of Chinese Lions, Peonies, Skulls, And Fountains (2011), and Tan Tan Bo a.k.a Gerotan: Scorched by the Blaze in the Purgatory of Knowledge (2018) will be lavishly illustrated. A highlight of the catalogue will be a published conversation
between Murakami and Schad where they discuss making art in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The book will be available at The Shop at #thebroad for $45.
Related Programs
The Broad will announce a dynamic slate of public programs that will further explore and contextualize the work of the featured artists. Highlights include a performance of “Houses of Zodiac,” by composer Paola Prestini, performed by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, and Butoh dancer and Sankai Juku member Dai Matsuoka, and poet Natalie Diaz’s new project featuring Los Angeles poets.

Image credits (from top): Takashi Murakami, In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow (detail), 2014. Acrylic on canvas. #thebroad Art Foundation. © 2014 Takashi Murakami／Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved; #hankwillisthomas, America, 2021. Mixed media including U.S. flags. #thebroad Art Foundation. © #hankwillisthomas. Photography by: Flying Studio, Los Angeles, Courtesy the artist and Kayne Griffin, Los Angeles
About The Broad
The Broad is a #contemporaryart museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. The museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement, all within a landmark building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. #thebroad is home to #thebroad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and #contemporaryart. The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of #thebroad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984. For news and updates, sign up for email newsletters at #thebroad.org or follow #thebroad on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.
About East West Bank, Leading Partner of The Broad
East West Bank, the largest commercial bank headquartered in Southern California, provides financial services that help clients reach further and connect to new opportunities. The bank is wholly-owned by East West Bancorp, Inc., which has total assets of over $60 billion and is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “EWBC”. East West operates over 120 locations worldwide. In the United States, East West’s presence includes California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Washington. For more information on East West, visit eastwestbank.com