The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing international cultural exchange between Asia and the U.S. and between the countries of Asia through the arts. Founded by John D. Rockefeller III in 1963, ACC has invested over $100 million in grants to artists and arts professionals representing 16 fields and 26 countries through over 6,000 exchanges. ACC supports $1.4 million in grants annually for individuals and organizations.
ACC Grantee, Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, at Versailles in September 2010
ACC Grantee, American film and theater director and writer Julie Taymor
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts as well as commercial media and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. His influential work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture. He designed the album covers for Kanye West's third studio album Graduation and West and Kid Cudi’s collaborative studio album Kids See Ghosts.
Murakami at the Palace of Versailles, 2010
Artist Takashi Murakami with early work "Polyrhythm" at Galerie Mars in Tokyo 1992.
Museum guests wait to see “Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto” at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan (2024).
Cosmos Ball by Takashi Murakami, molded plastic, 2000, Honolulu Museum of Art