A curious postscript to the post below: both the NYT and Slate have slide shows about the Murakami show. Both of them talk about 727-727, and attempt to illustrate it, on slide 10 of the NYT slideshow, and slide 8 of the Slate sideshow. And both of them use an illustration of a different painting, 727, rather than 727-727. Both paintings are on show in Brooklyn right now, but they are definitely distinct: 727-727 is more expressive and painterly. It’s not that hard to tell them apart, you’d think that a professional art critic could manage it. (See here, or below, for what 727-727 really looks like.)
Incidentally, I emailed the NYT on April 6 to inform them of their mistake, on their inform-us-of-errors email address of nytnews@nytimes.com. I got a form reply saying “your e-mail will reach the appropriate editor promptly,” but so far there’s been no correction. I’m trying the same thing with corrections@slate.com, we’ll see if the response is different. Who knows, maybe this blog entry will prompt a correction. Probably not.