Beat Takeshi Kitano: Gosse de Peintre

There's always been a disconnect between Takeshi Kitano's domestic persona – comedian, variety show host, ad campaign whore – and his overseas reputation as the auteur director of über-violent yakuza flicks and Zatoichi. But until recently, few people anywhere knew of 'Beat' Takeshi's artistic leanings. Recovering from the motorcycle accident that nearly cost him his life in 1994, he began to create vivd, naïf paintings of animals and flowers – a habit that he would continue to indulge in the future, during long nights when he couldn't sleep (or didn't want to). Following on from a well-received show at Paris's Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in 2010, Kitano is now exposing his art to public scrutiny for the first time in Japan, and presumably the curators think they've got a hit on their hands: the exhibition is set to run for nearly five months.