Superflat is the brainchild of artist Takashi Murakami. The word superflat juxtaposes the flat, planar quality of traditional Japanese paintings to the palpable lack of distinction between the high and low in Japanese culture. The movement is a provocative commentary on the rabid consumption of cartoon fantasy in post-war Japan and the implication that Japanese art and culture has turned a blind eye on the horror and humiliations experienced in World War II. … (read more)

Superflat is the brainchild of artist Takashi Murakami. The word superflat juxtaposes the flat, planar quality of traditional Japanese paintings to the palpable lack of distinction between the high and low in Japanese culture. The movement is a provocative commentary on the rabid consumption of cartoon fantasy in post-war Japan and the implication that Japanese art and culture has turned a blind eye on the horror and humiliations experienced in World War II.

Superflat grows from scrutiny of imagery dominating post-modern Japanese pop-culture, which reveals a marked obsession with child-like cartoon icons: playful, vacuous characters adopted from other traditions in the post-apocalyptic aftermath of the atom bomb. The artwork from this movement is rife with these icons of animation, harshly illuminating the notable absence of historical context for the adoption of these icons by the Japanese. A prominent theme in Superflat is criticism of the arbitrary selection of symbols as recipients of their idolatry and the rampant celebration of mass-market imagery.

Amongst the most famous of the Superflat generation include Henmaru Machino, famed for his grotesque, erotic manga; Yoshitomo Nara, known for his stylistic portrayal of children and animals, often juxtaposed with symbols of violence or social pollution; Aya Takano, known for her images of cutesy animals and gamine girls in vulnerable positions or sensually dream-like, exploitative environments.

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