Mushrooms in Art: From Hokusai to Kusama and Murakami
The arrival of autumn brings about a survey of fungi in the realm of art history, highlighted by Katsushika Hokusai's Edo Period (1603–1868) print at the Guimet Museum in Paris, which illustrates affluent women gathering mushrooms. In the mid-17th century, Otto Marseus van Schrieck gained recognition for his still life depictions of the forest floor; his work from around 1657 features mushrooms, flowers, and nocturnal creatures. Yayoi Kusama's 1995 painting, part of a private collection, reflects her psychedelic aesthetic and has influenced artists such as Andy Warhol. Takashi Murakami's Army of Mushrooms (2003), featured on WikiArt, presents approximately 400 variations, merging Japanese pop culture with social commentary, portraying mushrooms as both cute and erotic, reminiscent of fairy tales.
Key facts
- Katsushika Hokusai's mushroom-harvesting print dates from the Edo Period (1603–1868) and is held at the Guimet Museum, Paris
- Hokusai depicted mushroom picking as fashionable among women of well-to-do merchant classes, who gathered in the satoyama hills to welcome autumn
- Otto Marseus van Schrieck painted forest-floor still lifes in the mid-17th century, a sub-genre at its peak of vogue at that time
- Van Schrieck's c. 1657 work includes mushrooms, morning glories, a tulip, a frog, a snake, butterflies, and a dragonfly, often set at night
- Yayoi Kusama's Mushrooms (1995) is in a private collection
- Kusama's repetition-and-pattern approach influenced Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and George Segal
- Takashi Murakami's Army of Mushrooms dates to 2003 and is documented on WikiArt
- Murakami has produced around 400 variations on the mushroom motif
Entities
Artists
- Katsushika Hokusai
- Otto Marseus van Schrieck
- Yayoi Kusama
- Takashi Murakami
- Andy Warhol
- Claes Oldenburg
- George Segal
Institutions
- Guimet Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Flickr
- WikiArt
- DailyArt Magazine
Locations
- Paris
- France
- Japan