WITH TAKASHI MURAKAMI By Donna Dodson On Saturday, October 14, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Shapiro Celebrity Lecture with con- temporary artist Takashi Murakami, in conversation with Japanese art histo- rian Professor Nobuo Tsuji, moderated by Anne Nishimura Morse, the William and Helen Pounds senior curator of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Morse and Murakami both studied with Professor Tsuji, and Tsuji worked with Morse to catalog the MFA’s world-renowned Japanese art collection. The opening of “Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics” brought them together in a lineage of friendship, mentoring and collegiality, which was evident in the mood of the panel discussion. Murakami talked about being an art- ist from the Far East. His plan was to make it big in the West and sell himself back to the East since, from his point of view, … [Read more...] about Making Connections: With Donna Dodsen Nov/Dec 2017