5 Things to Know About Repetition + Variation

Since their debut in 1995, Takashi Murakami’s flowers have adorned fine art as well as stuffed animals, T-shirts, skateboards, jewelry, coffee mugs, and more. The grinning flower is a signature motif, or recurring element, in Murakami’s work. Within this repetition, though, is tremendous variation. For the artist, variation is “an amazing survival technique that helps you avoid slumps.”

Takashi Murakami first began adding flowers to his work in 1995. They’re on everyday items like T-shirts and mugs, as well as paintings and sculptures. His flowers are a motif, or a design that appears over and over again in his work. But within this repetition, there is a great deal of variation, or difference.

Flower Sparkles!, above, seems like cuteness overload. The 2021 print features a large flower with smaller flowers on the petals. Murakami varies the scale, or size, of each smiling flower in the composition. The stylized flowers are immensely popular and instantly recognizable. They also evoke the Japanese concept of cute, known as kawaii (kuh-wai-ee). By varying the scale of these flowers, Murakami plays with the definition of what’s adorable.

Murakami’s 2021 print Flower Sparkles!, above, is a large smiling flower. Look closer to see many smaller flowers, each a different scale, or size, inside the petals. These easily recognizable flowers are stylized, or simplified. People may think of the flowers as kawaii (kuh-wai-ee), or cute, in Japan.

After the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, Murakami created the installation above to support recovery efforts. He made large balloons featuring cheerful flowers. They hung inside a tunnel, and visitors walked beneath them. With bold outlines and flat colors, the design is flat. But how do the flowers transform on the balloons’ curved surfaces? Why is the space in which they’re displayed important?

After a 2016 earthquake in Japan, Murakami made the artwork, above, to support recovery efforts. Flowers cover the surface of large balloons. The artist hung them in an underground tunnel. Bold outlines and bright colors make a flat pattern. How does the design change on the round surface?

Murakami works in many different media–including painting, printmaking, and sculpture. In the larger-than-life sculpture above, the artist transforms two-dimensional flowers into three-dimensional humanoids. Viewers can walk all the way around the sculpture in the round, observing the contoured surfaces from many different angles. Murakami cites Walt Disney and George Lucas as influences. Does this example remind you of characters either one developed?

In addition to painting and printmaking, Murakami also makes sculptures. For the example shown above, the artist turned his two-dimensional, or flat, flowers into three-dimensional figures. People can walk all the way around this sculpture in the round and observe the contoured, or curved, surfaces. Does this sculpture remind you of any other characters?

With their black outlines and uniform, flat colors, Murakami’s flowers usually exemplify Superflat. But what happens when the artist removes the outlines and uses a single color? In the example above, the sculpture’s surface is reflective gold. Light emphasizes the three-dimensional forms, creating natural highlights and shadows. Is the work still Superflat?

Murakami usually makes flowers in his Superflat style, with bold outlines and solid colors. But the example above is only one color—gold. The gold surface is reflective, so light bounces off the artwork. Notice the highlights (lighter areas) and shadows (darker areas). Do you think the sculpture is still Superflat?

Murakami believes art can “turn your brain upside down and rewire your thinking.” The painting above is the only example on this page in which Murakami shows flowers growing from the ground like real plants. The image might remind you of a scene from an old-school video game. In this context, the characters floating in the sky probably draw your attention first, with the flowers acting as decoration. How does this change your perception of the motif?

The work shown above is the only one here with flowers growing from the ground like real plants. Characters float in the sky like in some old-school video games. Changing the placement of the flowers changes their context. Which part of the scene do you notice first? Does this scene change how you see or feel about the flower motif?