It’s a sign of the modern world that when Google asks you to do a Doodle you’ve truly arrived.  Such it is for classically trained, but pop culture inspired artist Takashi Murakami. Then again, you know you’re killing it when a statue of an asteroid titted anime sculpture fetches you $427,500 at Christie’s.  We should all be so lucky making money with Ecchi.  Murakami is prolific modern artist, best known for blurring the line between high and low art, a goal close to my own heart. He coined the term superflat to describes both the characteristics of the Japanese art tradition and post-war Japanese culture. Superflat is used to describe Murakami’s own artistic style and artists he’s influenced.

After training classically and drawing traditionally for some time, he realized he couldn’t make a dime painting high art pieces.  He focused on Japan’s ‘low’ culture, especially anime and manga, and the larger subculture of otaku. His signature artistic style (cute and disturbing anime-esque characters rendered in bright colors, flat and highly glossy surfaces, life-size sculptures of anime figures) come from his obsession with low brow, pop culture.

In 2000, Murakami published his “Superflat” theory in the catalogue for a group exhibition he curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.  In it, he details the legacy of flat, 2-d imagery and how it exists throughout Japanese art history and continues today in manga and anime. This style differs from the western approach to art in its emphasis on surface and use of flat planes of color. Superflat also served as a commentary on post-war Japanese society where differences in social class and popular taste have ‘flattened,’ producing a culture with little distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’.

Using the Superflat concept, Murakami repackages low brow cultural elements and presents them in the high-art market. He then further flattens the playing field by repackaging his “high-art” works as merchandise, such as plush toys and T-shirts, making them available at more affordable prices.