What is Superflat?
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Takashi Murakami. Acrylic on canvas. 350 x 247.4 cm. Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection. ©︎2011 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin.
He holds several scepters which variously suggest a lightning bolt, a lotus seed pod, and what might be described as a cordless microphone, the scepter of pop music.
Beneath the seated figure is another creature, a porcelain-white quadruped adorned with multicolored patches like a cloisonné enamel and bedecked with Murakami’s trademark: winsomely lashed eyes. Is this Mr. Pointy’s vahana? Vahanas are companion vehicles, creatures associated with many Hindu deities.
Whether it is Mr. Pointy’s vahana or not, this squat amphibian supports him as he hovers between the celestial realm above and the aquatic murk below. A rainbow-hued cosmic mandala intervenes, suggesting both galactic vastness and the detailing on a muscle car, elements whose imaginative proportions put comic book superheroes to shame.
In Superflat, Murakami fuses high and low art with unsuppressed delight. He sets Mr. Pointy above a lush lotus blossom, an emblem of purity closely related to conceptions of the Buddha. Its unsullied flower rises from the mud; its healthy leaves are arrayed around the sturdy root which anchors the composition and serves as a reflection of Mr. Pointy’s own sky-facing peak.