Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami is holding his first major retrospective in France at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris.

Mr Murakami, who was born in Tokyo in 1962, is displaying his sculptures and paintings in 15 rooms in the palace’s Hall of Mirrors and the apartments of the King and the Queen. He has been granted the privilege of using the space at the palace after American Jeff Koons in 2008 and Frenchman Xavier Veilhan last year.

The artist works in both fine arts as well as digital and commercial media. He is renowned for appropriating popular themes from the mass media and pop culture and turning them into tall sculptures and “superflat” paintings. He also produces marketable commercial goods such as figurines. The “superflat” style features flat panes of colour and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga.

The exhibition opens to the public on Sunday and runs until December 12.