Guy Hepner Gallery

Takashi Murakami Planet 66 For Sale

Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami - Planet 66, 2007, Lithograph

Planet 66, 2007

Lithograph

26 3/4 x 26 3/4 in 68 x 68 cm

Edition

Edition of 300

About this work

Takashi Murakami's Characters series stands as a vivid testament to his innovative blending of traditional Japanese aesthetics with modern pop cultural elements, encapsulated through a collection of lithograph prints all limited to an edition size of 300. Produced during the 2000s, this series marks a significant period in Murakami's career, as it charts his ascendancy to international acclaim and recognition in the art world. Born and raised in Tokyo, Murakami's early fascination with anime and manga profoundly influenced his creative expression. Despite this modern inclination, he pursued a more classical path in art education, earning his BA, Master’s, and PhD in 'nihonga', a traditional Japanese painting style, at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. Over time, Murakami grew disillusioned with the restrictive and politically charged environment that characterized the traditional Japanese art scene. This disillusionment spurred him to explore and eventually embrace more contemporary artistic expressions, forging a path that would lead him to develop his distinctive style. Murakami coined the term ‘superflat’ in 2000, which he used to articulate his theory on Japanese popular culture and the intrinsic flatness of classical Japanese artistic styles as seen in manga and anime. This concept contrasts sharply with Western art's emphasis on depth and texture. Superflat not only serves as a descriptor for Murakami's unique visual style but also comments on the nature of post-war Japanese culture, where distinctions between high and low culture have increasingly blurred, mirroring the flatness observed in social classes and consumer tastes. In the Characters series, Murakami's mastery in merging East and West, past and present, is vividly displayed. He elevates characters from Japanese cartoons — typically seen as low culture — to the high culture sphere of fine art. By doing so, Murakami challenges and plays with the boundaries between what is traditionally seen as high art and popular culture. This series is particularly emblematic of his superflat style, showcasing not only his skill in traditional Japanese techniques but also his ability to subvert these techniques to incorporate modern, mass-cultural elements. Through the Characters series, Murakami effectively flattens the hierarchy between high and low art, offering a critique of contemporary cultural dynamics while celebrating the rich visual style of his heritage. This series not only highlights Murakami's role as an innovator but also underscores his critical perspective on the intersections of art, culture, and society.

Price on Application

Auction History

Takashi Murakami - Flower, P-chan; Flower, 66 Aliens; Planet 66 & Summer Vacation of 66 Aliens

Flower, P-chan; Flower, 66 Aliens; Planet 66 & Summer Vacation of 66 Aliens · Takashi Murakami · Christie's · 2007-05 · $16,874

Takashi Murakami - Planet 66 (two works)

Planet 66 (two works) · Takashi Murakami · Sotheby's · 2013-10 · $15,314

Takashi Murakami - Yoshiko and the Creatures from Planet 66; Planet 66 Summer Vacation; Kiki with Moss; Kaikai Kiki and Me...

Yoshiko and the Creatures from Planet 66; Planet 66 Summer Vacation; Kiki with Moss; Kaikai Kiki and Me - For Better or Worse, In Good Times And Bad. The Weather is Fine; Kaikai Kiki and Me - The Shocking Truth Revealed; Flowers from the Village Ponkotan; & Kaikai with Moss · Takashi Murakami · Christie's · 2012-05 · $13,687

Takashi Murakami - Planet 66

Planet 66 · Takashi Murakami · Christie's · 2020-12 · $9,375

Takashi Murakami - Planet 66: Summer Vacation

Planet 66: Summer Vacation · Takashi Murakami · Christie's · 2020-12 · $7,500

More from this series

More series by Takashi Murakami

About the Characters Series

Takashi Murakami Characters Prints For Sale

Takashi Murakami's Characters series represents a pivotal exploration of the artist's signature visual language, blending fine art with contemporary pop culture aesthetics. This collection features iconic works including Planet 66, Planet Summer Vacation, Cha, and the contemplative paired pieces If Only I Could Do This and If Only I Could Do That, alongside transcendent compositions like Nirvana and Mamu From The Sky.

Created during a period of significant artistic maturation, these works showcase Murakami's masterful integration of traditional Japanese painting techniques with digital media and vibrant color palettes. The Characters series exemplifies his ability to transform whimsical imagery into profound cultural commentary, establishing the artist as a defining voice in contemporary art.

Each piece in this series commands substantial collector interest, reflecting both their aesthetic innovation and investment potential. Whether exploring themes of aspiration, enlightenment, or dimensional displacement, these works remain highly sought after by serious collectors worldwide.

Available for purchase. Please enquire for availability and pricing of individual works.

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Planet 66

About Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami Prints For Sale

Takashi Murakami prints for sale at Guy Hepner Gallery in New York span the full range of his edition output: Superflat flower prints, skull series, Mr. DOB works, Kaikai Kiki editions, and collaborative works that have made Murakami one of the most actively traded artists in the contemporary print market. For collectors seeking Takashi Murakami art for sale — whether an iconic flower screenprint, a limited-edition sculpture multiple, or a major canvas — Guy Hepner at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York offers expert guidance, full provenance documentation, and access to authenticated works across all his major series.

Takashi Murakami (b. 1962, Tokyo) is the defining figure of contemporary Japanese art on the international stage — an artist, theorist, entrepreneur, and studio director whose Superflat theory and the enormously productive practice it generated have permanently altered the conversation about the relationship between high art and popular culture, between Western postwar painting and East Asian visual tradition, and between the studio and the factory. Murakami received his BA, MA, and PhD from the Tokyo University of the Arts in Nihonga — traditional Japanese painting — a rigorous formation that gives his apparently anarchic pop sensibility its underlying structural discipline.

The Superflat manifesto, which Murakami developed and articulated in the early 2000s, proposed that the flattened pictorial space of traditional Japanese painting and the surface-oriented aesthetics of anime and manga were not merely parallel phenomena but expressions of the same deep cultural logic — a logic that Western art history had misread as naivety but which Murakami identified as a sophisticated and distinctive mode of representation.

Murakami's Visual Universe: Flowers, Skulls, and Mr. DOB

Through his practice, Murakami has built a visual universe populated by recurring characters and motifs:

  • Smiling Flowers — deceptively cheerful multi-eyed blossoms that bloom across canvases, prints, and merchandise of enormous scale and colour variety. The flowers are Murakami's most recognisable and actively traded motif in the edition market.
  • Mr. DOB — Murakami's alter ego and running commentary on consumerism; a hybrid figure drawing on anime, cartoon, and pop art traditions
  • Skulls — rendered in the manner of traditional Japanese vanitas imagery, these works bridge his engagement with the history of Japanese craft and his fascination with mortality and popular culture
  • Kaikai and Kiki — his studio mascots, which appear across prints, sculptures, and merchandise as embodiments of the Kaikai Kiki production ethos
  • Flower Ball — large-scale sphere compositions made of repeating flower motifs; among his most sought-after sculptural and print works

Takashi Murakami: Kaikai Kiki Studio and Production

Murakami's Kaikai Kiki studio and production company — employing dozens of assistants in an explicit homage to both the Japanese craft workshop and Warhol's Factory — produces paintings, sculptures, editions, merchandise, and cultural events with equal seriousness and commercial intent. This model, in which studio production, cultural criticism, and commercial output are deliberately merged, is central to understanding Murakami's practice and the edition market that surrounds it.

Murakami: Major Collaborations and Cultural Reach

Murakami's major collaborations have extended his work into fashion, music, and popular culture on a global scale. His partnership with Louis Vuitton produced some of the most successful fashion-art collaborations of the 2000s. His album artwork for Kanye West's Graduation brought his visual language to audiences that had no prior engagement with contemporary art. His collaborations with Supreme and other streetwear brands have ensured that his work circulates across youth culture as readily as it does in museum collections.

These collaborations have expanded the collector base for his fine art editions significantly: many collectors who first encountered Murakami through fashion or music have subsequently acquired prints and multiples, creating sustained demand across a wider demographic than most contemporary artists command.

Takashi Murakami: Market and Auction Results

Murakami's auction record stands at $15,200,000 for My Lonesome Cowboy (1998) at Sotheby's New York in 2008, and major paintings continue to command seven-figure results. His edition prints and multiples — flower series, skulls, Mr. DOB, Kaikai Kiki — are among the most actively traded in the contemporary edition market globally. Print prices range from $3,000–$5,000 for smaller open editions through $50,000–$200,000+ for rare signed limited editions and artist proofs in high demand colourways.

Murakami's work is held in permanent collections at MoMA, MOCA Los Angeles, the Asian Art Museum San Francisco, Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Centre Pompidou, the Rubell Museum, and the Mori Art Museum Tokyo.

What to Look For When Buying Takashi Murakami Prints

Edition size: Murakami produces both open-edition merchandise-style prints and tightly limited fine art editions. The latter — often numbered to 50 or fewer, with hand signature and certificate of authenticity from Kaikai Kiki — carry the strongest value and market liquidity.

Motif and colourway: Flower works in rare colourways, skull editions, and Mr. DOB prints consistently outperform peripheral motifs. Rainbow colourways and gold/metallic editions typically carry premium over standard colourways.

Authentication: All fine art editions should come with Kaikai Kiki certificates of authenticity and, for works sold through Perrotin or other authorised galleries, original gallery documentation.

Condition: Murakami's prints are typically produced on archival substrates, but condition remains important — works stored and framed correctly hold value most reliably.

Buy Takashi Murakami Art For Sale at Guy Hepner Gallery, New York

Guy Hepner offers a curated selection of Takashi Murakami prints for sale and edition multiples across all his major series from our gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York. We bring expert knowledge of the Murakami edition market and offer free, confidential valuations for collectors looking to sell or appraise their holdings. Whether you are seeking an iconic flower print, a skull series multiple, or a rare signed limited edition, Guy Hepner provides the market expertise, authentication assurance, and collector access to support every acquisition.

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