The "Louis Vuitton Don" and the "Warhol of Japan"

Takashi Murakami collaborated with Kanye West on the rapper's third album, Graduation, which hits stores on Tuesday. The Japanese artist created covers for the singles "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Stronger", a three-minute animation for one of the music videos, and art for the album's merchandising. Watch "Stronger" below:

If you find this a surprising project for a darling of the art world who has won the endorsement of blue-chip dealer Larry Gagosian and earned himself a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles this fall, remember that Murakami is an artist who wants to blur the line between high art and low art. They don't call him the "Warhol of Japan" for nothing. But if you're confused, rather, as to West's interest in having a contemporary art star create the face of his new record, consider this:

Kanye West loves Louis Vuitton. He's decorated his home with Louis Vuitton steamer trunks. His 30th birthday party was at a Louis Vuitton boutique. He calls himself the "Louis Vuitton don." And who was behind Louis Vuitton's wildly popular cherry-emblazoned bowling bags? Takashi Murakami. If you have what seems to be a preternatural obsession with a luxury goods maker, it only makes sense that you would commission the designer of one of that maker's most popular lines to do work on your own merchandise. (See pics from West's visit to Murakami's studio in Japan here.)

But Louis Vuitton aside, West is, in fact, a collector of post-war and contemporary art, including — you guessed it — Murakami's work. Leafing through a copy of August's Interior Design in which West's apartment is featured, it looks like he's got a Murakami painting in his living room and a bunch of the artist's smiley-face pillows in his office. These are in addition to his Warhol soup cans, his Burton Morris Big Boy, and his Fernando and Humberto Campana stuffed-animal chair. (On a tangential but entertaining note, West also reportedly showed up at Lehmann Maupin the night before Japanese artist Mr.'s opening at the gallery with fried chicken and Mexican food, sustenance for the home stretch of the artist's installation and also a way for West to get a first look at the work.)

So really, the West-Murakami alliance makes perfect sense. Much more than, for example, a jeans-designing deal struck by Gagosian's other supernova.

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