Plumbing the Depths of Superflatness

Abstract

“Superflat” is the brainchild of the Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, a concept that has spawned a book, a traveling exhibition, and even an art movement, according to one Los Angeles art critic.1 The term has even passed into more general parlance, recently making it past the proofreaders at the New Yorker and bolstering student presentations in architecture school critiques.2 Yet in spite of its almost self-deprecating etymology, “Superflat” is far from unnuanced or superficial and has cracked open the discourse about contemporary Japanese culture and society. Its reverberations are now starting to be felt in Western cultural circles. Like a Japanese transformer toy, it has the capacity to move and bend to engage a wide range of issues: from proposing formal historical connections between classic Japanese art and the anime cartoons of today to a Pop Art–like cross-contamination of high and low to a social critique of contemporary mores and motivations. As such, “Superflat” requires examination from a number of different angles in order to be fully appreciated and understood, and the best place to start is with Murakami himself.

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