Essay on Controversy in the Creative Work of Takashi Murakami
The term “superflat” was first used by Takashi Murakami who became the founder of this direction and was since then known as Japanese Andy Warhol. This term is a totally new visual language that distinguishes the creative work of Takashi Murakami from other artists in the sphere of pop culture. If to give a deep overview of the term, it becomes clear that from the one perspective, Murakami uses the aesthetics of anime and manga or in other words, pop art. On the other hand, flat images root back to the classics of Japanese art. It is not a coincidence that such a direction was founded in Japan and promises to become a “national” style in modern art.
The following research examines several works of Takashi Murakami to find out more about the superflat term and the place it occupies in the pop culture of Japan. Thus, the art works under discussion will include Flower Matango, Superflat Monogram and Mr. DOB that vividly illustrate the term of superflat and contribute to the deeper understanding of the term.
Takashi Murakami claims that the Japanese culture does not have any 3D images. The Japanese art works are mainly characterized by 2D forms that are known as superflat. This forms a special charm of Japanese art. It was Takashi Murakami who first introduced the term of superflat and Po-Ku Revolution formed from the words “pop” and “otaku”. This is a neologism that characterizes the tendencies of Japanese pop culture. It is worth noting that Takashi Murakami is a bright representative of this kind of culture.
To find out more about the artist, it is worth saying that Takashi Murakami is a modern Japanese artist who works according to two directions of media art including digital and commercial mass media. He balances between the terms of high and low art using popular themes that can be found in the sources of mass media information and pop culture.
Today, the artist is a worldwide known director of the Kaikai Kiki studio and the author of multiple pop art images that have long become beloved characters of a great number of anime and manga fans. The works of Takashi Murakami are easily recognized out of thousands of others. He has a special and totally inimitable style that evolves only good emotions in anime and manga fans.
Nina Cornyetz claims that the notion of superflat is a sort of Murakami’s attempt to revitalize the pre-Westernized and wholly ingenious Japanese artistic tendency in terms that at the same time accommodate a totally Westernized pop culture (Cornyetz). The goal of Takashi Murakami is to connect the representational aesthetics of Japan and thoroughly explore the dynamics of the contemporary animation artists and a group of Edo-era masters.
Proceeding with the analysis of the superflat reality in the creative work of Takashi Murakami, it is worth mentioning that back in 2009, Louis Vuitton presented a new project featuring the artist under discussion. The cooperation between the France-born designer brand and the Japanese artistic master resulted in the short animated video entitled Superflat First Love featuring a multicolored Panda that is a guide to a Japanese teenage girl. It is actually a sequel to the priory released video known as Superflat Monogram. It featured that same amiable Panda with big eyes that was swimming in the ocean of the multicolored monograms of the brand. The moving characters of both videos are created in such a way to be deliberately flat and floating (Jinying). It is the signature style of what Takashi Murakami named superflat.
The only aspect that distinguishes the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami from the classical artists of pop-art is his close attention to all segments of the market. Apart from creating animation videos, the artist develops superb designs of Louis Vuitton bags and many other accessories. The artist claims that he has always dreamed to create idols of the otaku culture. Apart from the artistic practices, Murakami also pays much attention to the philosophic problems. The direction known as superflat is based on the philosophy according to which Japan is all about the flat perception of the world (Jinying). Thus, everything is based on one level – mass culture, work, entertainment and family. High culture is not to the liking of the Japanese people who choose the other direction. The notion superflat is used by Takashi Murakami in his artistic creations that include images containing illusions of depth and perspective.
Examining the roots of superflat, it is worth saying that after the war, the art experienced destruction. Everything was ruined. However, as a winner, America became the leader of the world’s culture. This is how pop culture was born. The Japanese people strived for this pop culture, but were unable to provide an economic base necessary for it to flourish. As a result, Japanese people offered minimalistic and cheap means of entertainment in the sphere of art. For the Japanese people the art existed somewhere on the level of brands. According to Takashi Murakami, the Japanese nation has been raised in such reality.
One of the major heroes of Murakami’s works is Mr. DOB who is a psychedelic character with a wide smile and three eyes. Later, this character found friends with the same physiologically strange features. Mixing the aesthetics of Japanese and American subcultures, Murakami introduced a new word “poku” that represented hybrid of pop art and otaku.
According to multiple researchers in the sphere of the Japanese art, the Japanese culture has no 3D images. The charming and attractive feature of it is superflat. The works of Takashi Murakami are easily recognizable among thousands of others. This artist uses the aesthetics of kawaii Japanese multiplication and thus, his artistic works bristle with cute and slightly abnormal animals, flowers, mushrooms and berries (Stout).
Some researchers claim that just like Andy Warhol, Murakami tries to eliminate the link between the high art and modern pop culture by commercializing the art. He does not only create highly extravagant works, but also distributes them among the mass consumers by creating various designer novelties in cooperation with Louis Vuitton.
Murakami’s superflat videos for the French designer Louis Vuitton with the use of the trademark’s monograms are not all about the two-dimensional Panda, but can also be seen on its body. The animated character is not simply the consumer of the trademark, but it also personifies the brand itself. The animation Panda has big staring eyes and an attractive smiling face. The non-perspective way of visualization does not simply mark the superflat art or Japanese anime and manga, but is also dominating the whole visual culture, including television, video games, cinema and the Internet (Jinying). Takashi Murakami became a founder of the unique Japanese artistic tradition. And the notion of superflat is still one of the best characteristics describing this trend of non-perspective vision.
The works of Takashi Murakami often expose sexuality that sometimes exceeds the borders of the existing limitations to it. The researcher Edward Rubin accuses Murakami as a murderer of the French heritage, national artistic identity and the most sacred aspects of the French culture (Rubin). Certain researchers and critics consider that Murakami shows no respect to Versailles, when his works are exhibited. The exhibitions of Murakami demonstrate grotesque dolls. His works diminishes the entity of the museum’s style. Moreover, they destruct the harmony of Versailles as a symbol of French history and culture. Thus, Takashi Murakami is perceived in a controversial way by both the artistic critics and general public.
As an artist, Takashi Murakami can be called a revolutionary master of anime and manga. It is also worth mentioning that Murakami creates controversial characters that are perceived by people in different ways, thus making the whole artistic work of the artist highly unconventional. All characters of Murakami possess something unique and inimitable. All this makes them stand out from the crowd being different from everything else existing in today’s world of animation and art.
Today, according to “The Time”, Murakami belongs to a hundred of the most influential people of the world. His exhibitions are annually visited by millions of anime and manga fans. Although the creative work of the artist bristles with nudity and pornography, his works still remain on top of popularity among his followers. The above paper has analyzed several characters of Takashi Murakami that contributed to a better understanding of the artist’s creative activity. Now it becomes clear that the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is not only a greatly controversial artist, but also quite unconventional in his views on pop culture as a whole.
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