Inside Japan (a bit like Berlin), there aren’t really serious art collectors. Inside Japan, people like Murakami and Nara make their money by doing corporate identity (Vuitton, Roppongi Hills) or mass-producing souvenirs… Art is collapsed into the mass market. Galleries are often in department stores, and often show what we’d think of as commercial work; record sleeves, airline advertising. But also there’s the wider perspective that Japan doesn’t really have a tradition of high art separated from design, crafts, practical things, commerce… And there’s no point in accusing Japanese artists of “selling out”. When Nara makes a puppy-shaped alarm clock, he’s distributing his work through the radically flat social structure of Japan much the way Warhol said he’d like to.

A great piece from Momus. Read the whole post on his blog.