Lot Essay
The work of Takashi Murakami synthesizes his love for Japanese sub-culture demonstrated by 'otaku' (anime), and his academic training in 'Nihon-Ga', a style of painting developed in nineteenth century Japan. "Murakami has acknowledged that traditional Japanese painting, which renders space as shallow, inspires the flatness in these works. The historical reference is so deliberate that Murakami entitled a recent exhibition Super Flat" (T. Murakami, The meaning of the nonsense of the meaning, p.19).