Rider (benzaiten music goddess)
Artist: Gajin Fujita (American, born 1972)
Date: 2017
Dimensions:
Painting: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
Medium: Spray paint, paint markers, platinum, 12k white gold on wood panel
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Art Acquisition Endowment Fund
Object number: 2018.13
Label Text:Small in scale, Rider features iconography and imagery that typify Fujita's practice: a stylized dragon, a Japanese goddess, and allusions to music. Here, Benzaiten, or Benten, Buddhist goddess of music, wears headphones while holding a biwa, a four-stringed Japanese lute. The instrument is emblazoned with the brand name Fender, famous maker of electric guitars.
Creating complex and ambitious paintings that range in scale from diminutive to mural-size, Gajin Fujita takes inspiration from traditional Japanese iconography, urban street life, and popular culture. Merging these diverse influences, he has created a body of work unified by a remarkable visual vocabulary that is uniquely his own. Fujita uses a stable of materials and methods, including spray paint (applied loosely and through intricately hand-cut stencils), paint markers, and gold leaf.
Creating complex and ambitious paintings that range in scale from diminutive to mural-size, Gajin Fujita takes inspiration from traditional Japanese iconography, urban street life, and popular culture. Merging these diverse influences, he has created a body of work unified by a remarkable visual vocabulary that is uniquely his own. Fujita uses a stable of materials and methods, including spray paint (applied loosely and through intricately hand-cut stencils), paint markers, and gold leaf.
Not on view