''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is a sculpture created in 1998 by Japanese artist

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

. Produced during Murakami's so-called "bodily fluids" period, the statue depicts an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

-inspired figure ejaculating a large strand of semen. Like its companion piece '' Hiropon'', ''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is an example of

superflat Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. However, superflat doesn't have an explicit definition because Takashi Murakami does not want to limit the movement, but rather ...

art, an

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...

founded by Murakami in the 1990s to criticize Japanese consumer culture. The sculpture is noted as among Murakami's most famous works.

Description

''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is an sculpture depicting a smiling nude

-inspired male figure with spiked hair. The figure's legs are spread, and he is gripping his large erect penis, which is ejaculating semen that circles around his body like a

lasso A lasso ( or ), also called lariat, riata, or reata (all from Castilian, la reata 're-tied rope'), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the Spanish an ...

. Both ''My Lonesome Cowboy'' and its earlier companion piece '' Hiropon'' were produced during Murakami's so-called "bodily fluids" phase in the late 1990s, in which he depicted highly sexualized figures inspired by ''

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

'' culture. The sculpture is evocative of ''

shunga is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga'' ...

'' (a type of historic erotic

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

which often depicted figures with exaggerated genitalia) and

hentai Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...

(anime and manga pornography). Murakami hired commercial manufacturers to produce the sculpture in order to maintain fidelity to its ''otaku'' source material. ''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is an example of

art, an

founded by Murakami in the 1990s to criticize Japanese consumer culture. Its title is a dual reference: first to the 1968

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

film ''

Lonesome Cowboys ''Lonesome Cowboys'' is a 1968 American Western film directed by Andy Warhol and written and produced by Paul Morrissey. The film is a satire of Hollywood Westerns, and was initially screened in November 1968 at the San Francisco International ...

'', in regards to the pop art movement the film belonged to that was similarly influenced by consumer culture. It additionally references the 1957 film '' Loving You'', in which

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

performs the song "Lonesome Cowboy" in a pose that similarly emphasizes his thighs and pelvis.

Casts

Murakami produced three casts plus two

artist's proof An artist's proof is an impression of a print taken in the printmaking process to see the current printing state of a plate while the plate (or stone, or woodblock) is being worked on by the artist. A proof may show a clearly incomplete image, ofte ...

s of ''My Lonesome Cowboy'', with the hair of the figure being of different colors in each of the casts. In 2008, the fourth numbered edition of ''My Lonesome Cowboy'' sold at an auction by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

for

USD$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

15.1 million, nearly four times the amount at which it was valued. At the time, the sale made Murakami one of the most expensive living artists in the world.

Reception

''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is noted as among Murakami's most famous works. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' art critic

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position. Early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...

wrote that both it and ''Hiropon'' "mesmerize through an unsettling combination of innocence, carnal knowledge, beauty, exquisite artifice and arrested movement", though argued that ''My Lonesome Cowboy'' is "simplistically macho" compared to the more "nuanced" ''Hiropon''. She nonetheless assesses both pieces favorably, arguing "after their shock value has declined, as all shock value must, they are still interesting to look at", arguing that both pieces are more successful than the erotic sculptures of

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror- finish su ...

and

Allen Jones Allen Jones may refer to: *Allen Jones (Continental Congress) (1739–1798), Continental Congress delegate *Allen Jones (artist) (born 1937), British pop artist *Allen Jones (record producer) (1940–1987), American record producer *A.J. Styles (Al ...

. Art scholar Grace McQuilten is more critical of the piece, calling it "cute and colourful enough to appeal to a general audience at the same time as carrying off a semblance of social critique", arguing that it merely "reproduce a popular fetish" and does not "challenge or modify the ''otaku'' stereotype".

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=Superflat Artworks , url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/superflat/artworks/ , website=The Art Story , accessdate=26 September 2020 {{cite journal , last1=Zohar , first1=Aylet , editor1-last=Vincent , editor1-first=J. Keith , editor2-last=Cornyetz , editor2-first=Nina , title=Pelluses/phani , journal=Perversion and Modern Japan Psychoanalysis, Literature, Culture , date=2010 , issue=Taylor & Francis , pages=102–125 , url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Perversion_and_Modern_Japan/CvZ8AgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 , isbn=9781134031542 {{cite web , title=Takashi Murakami: MY LONESOME COWBOY , url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/contemporary-art-evening-auction-n08441/lot.9.html , website=

, accessdate=26 September 2020 {{cite journal , last1=McQuilten , first1=Grace , title=Takashi Murakami: The Meaning of the Nonsense of the Meaning , journal=Menlo Park , date=March 2013 , volume=1 , issue=1 , url=http://menlopark.ca/takashi-murakami-the-meaning-of-the-nonsense-of-the-meaning/ {{cite web , last1=Vogel , first1=Carol , title=Bacon Triptych Auctioned for Record $86 Million , url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/arts/design/15auction.html , website=

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, accessdate=26 September 2020 , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117060820/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/arts/design/15auction.html , archivedate=17 January 2008 , date=15 May 2008 {{cite web , last1=Smith , first1=Roberta , title=Art in Review: Takashi Murakami , url=http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/05/arts/art-in-review-takashi-murakami.html , website=The New York Times , accessdate=26 September 2020 , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403073633/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/05/arts/art-in-review-takashi-murakami.html , archivedate=3 April 2015 , date=5 February 1999 1998 sculptures Japanese contemporary art Pop art Sculptures of men Nude sculptures Semen