Takashi Murakami: New Day: Self-Portrait

Launched in response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan, Takashi Murakami’s New Day initiative began as an open call for visual responses to the disaster, and grew to include exhibitions, artist-designed products, and other fundraising ventures. Murakami himself produced several works under the New Day rubric, including this bright self-portrait screen print. Uncharacteristically, he pictures himself as distraught, his beard unruly and his mouth open in a scream. Beneath his face is the optimistic phrase “new day,” punctuated by a rising red sun.