TAKASHI MURAKAMI
FLOWER FOR ALGERNON, 2010
Offset Lithograph
71x71cm
Flowers for Algernon is an offset lithograph that features Murakami’s most recognizable motif.
Murakami designed his flowers to have a beaming smile and beady eyes, each with colourful 12
petals. The flowers always symbolize two sides of the coin, innocence and happiness, or sadness
and mourning. Flowers for Algernon itself is a tragic novel about a science experiment done to
increase one’s intelligence so that at one moment one might enjoy knowledge like no other, but in
a gruelling fashion, the knowledge is slowly taken away from them. In this novel, Algernon
symbolizes innocence, fate, reality, and death. This artwork is also a tribute to another influential
artist, Andy Warhol.
