[PREV - CRITICAL_TIME]    [TOP]

SUPERFLAT

                                                October 5, 2016

What "superflat" means to me:

A phrase invented by
Takashi Murakami, to describe          Like that vile hellspawn
a style of Japanese pop-art.           known as "Hello Kitty"
                                       and it's descendants.
There's an embrace of simplicity
elevated to the level of crudity,
a self-conscious decision to                Some Takashi Murakami work:
be cartoony, to descend to the level
of children's black-board art--               [ref]
though typically cleaned-up and               [ref]
made very-very Neat: we are talking           [ref]
about a Japanese style here.                  [ref]
                                              [ref]
In many ways it's a variant of the            [ref] 
impulse behind Abstract Art: we used to       [ref]
honor artists who could imitate the
world and capture "life-like"
three-dimensional views-- to some
extent we honor them still-- but now
there's always a lurking question:
what's the point?

If you're not going to labor mightily
to produce a second-rate imitation
of a photograph, what are you going
to do?

   One answer is "superflat".


That's my take.  Now let's look at the answer-key:

   [ref]

   " ... various flattened forms in Japanese
   graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine       And clearly the
   arts, as well as the 'shallow emptiness of         devotees of "superflat"
   Japanese consumer culture.' "                      aren't so inclined to
                                                      require it to be
                                                      literally 2-D:
                                                      the notion is more like
                                                      an embrace of the
                                                      "surface" appeal,
                                                      a wallowing in the
                                                      "shallow" elements
                                                      of pop culture.


  [ref]

     "Murakami first arrived at the concept of superflat as
     it pertained to his own art. 'I'd been thinking about
     the reality of Japanese drawing and painting and how it
     is different from Western art. What is important in
     Japanese art is the feeling of flatness. Our culture
     doesn't have 3-D,' he says. 'Even Nintendo, when it
     uses 3-D, the Japanese version looks different from the
     U.S. version. Mortal Combat in the U.S comes out as
     Virtual Fighter in Japan and it's different.'

     "He had even noticed it back in his art history
     classes - searching for connections between nihon-ga
     and animator Kanada. The link, it turned out, was
     flatness. He decided that Kanada's animated sci-fi
     explosions were simply consecutive design motifs. (A
     still from Kanada's 1979 Galaxy Express 999 is
     included in the Superflat show.)

     "One notion of flatness led to another -- the
     compression of genres in the pop-inflected work of
     younger artists. 'The new generation doesn't think
     about what is art or what is illustration,' Murakami
     explains. 'Their work is "no genre."' "


[ref]

     "Murakami’s work is defined first by its visual
     aesthetic, an instantly recognizable, super-slick
     gloss that combines anime (Japanese animated cartoons)
     and ukiyo-e (traditional Japanese block prints)
     influences, as well as the mass production fetish of
     Warhol."

Duh, yes Warhol.
                                              WARHOL
This one, for example, is totally
Dr. Seuss meets Warhol after listening
to too much Kyary Pamyu Pamyu:

   [ref]
   [ref]

--------
[NEXT - CHALKBOARD_TRACES]