Chiaroscuro creates a profound depth in this piece, which keeps the attention shifting across the painting. But it’s her enigmatic smile that magnetizes the viewer, along with the thriller of what’s behind that famous smile. His work is typified in this triptych, combining the artist’s signature avatar Mr. DOB, who sits centrally poised and tragically laughing. 727 is a reference to the Boeing American airplanes that flew over Murakami’s childhood residence while heading to U.S. military bases, a direct nod to the U.S. presence in post-WWII Japan that he often revisits in his art.
The resultant piece of artwork may also supply perception into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest appropriate approaches for use in more standard forms of psychiatric therapy. In The Origin of the Work of Art, Martin Heidegger, a German thinker and a seminal thinker, describes the essence of art by way of the …