Takashi Murakami in Doha is the Daily Pic by Blake Gopnik

I’ve argued that Takashi Murakami’s “consumerist” art – shown here in a recent exhibition in Qatar – actually gives a brutal, vampiric depiction of modern consumerism. I only bring this up because Paul Schimmel, the chief curator recently fired from L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, has taken flak for the Murakami show he mounted in 2007, complete with its Murakami-designed Louis Vuitton store. As I argue in today’s Daily Beast, to see support for a culture of money and sales it’s better to look at the board that fired Schimmel. (© Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli)

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