Further research: Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami, A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, 2009

I want to create 6 pop art works with pets as a manifestation against animal cruelty.  

In this new work, Murakami presents the legend of the Karajish, or "Chinese lion", a mythological animal that guards the doors of Japanese Buddhist temples, separates the sacred from the secular, banishes evil and promotes happiness and joy. The lion was first depicted by Chinese and then Japanese artists, based on Indian and Assyrian versions with Buddhist iconography, without the actual animal. So these depictions of an exotic animal just got more and more imaginative. Karajishi was chosen for the role of Shohaku Soga (1730-1781), a renowned iconoclast who combined Zen and Chinese styles with wild, virtuoso brushwork and equally valuable wit and ingenuity, and whose interpretations of Zen Buddhist ascetic Daruma, another famous outsider. was the main inspiration for Murakami's 2007 series.

 On a large, four-panel canvas of astonishing intricacy and pictorial detail, Murakami presents an allegory of ritual and survival in raising a karajishi whose parents throw themselves off cliffs like puppies to test their strength and endurance. On an eerie bridge made entirely of human skulls sits an adult karajishi while his sons play, presumably survivors of Darwin's exercises. Stacks of skulls - each individually and carefully presented in imaginative color combinations - are balanced with moody, abstract, vibrant tones achieved through traditional design and painting techniques, including kesuri, where the image surface is created by stretching and sanding. layer by layer to create a rich and versatile patina that combines the sophisticated depth of Japanese lacquer with the alchemy of Warhol's risky Oxidation paintings.

Reference:

Takashi Murakami (2018) Gagosian. Available at: https://gagosian.com/artists/takashi-murakami/ (Accessed: November 16, 2022).