{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/88947"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/88947","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Re-evaluating Murakami's Superflat: toward a contextualized interpretation of contemporary Japanese art","abstract":"\"This thesis examines Murakami Takashi’s Superflat theory and exhibition as well as the ramifications of its success. Developed through the 1990s and the early 2000s, Murakami’s Superflat theory attempts to prove a direct connection between the aesthetics of Edo period (1603-1868) and contemporary Japanese art. Murakami built his own production studio and branding devices as an attempt to further codify Superflat as a unique movement in Japanese art. As a result of Murakami’s tactics and the popularity of his theory in North America and Europe, many of his contemporaries are frequently analyzed through the lens of Superflat. Yet, the totalizing effect of the Superflat theory does disservice to the majority of Japanese contemporary artists whose work has very little in relation to Murakami’s pop aesthetic. To explore how Murakami achieved this result, this thesis first analyzes the art historical claims made in the Superflat theory. This is followed by an examination of the impetus for and contextualization of the creation of Superflat. As an example of the effect of Murakami’s discursive dominance over conversations of Japanese art in North America, the thesis concludes with an analysis of David Elliott’s 2011 Japan Society exhibition titled \"\"Bye Bye Kiity!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Contemporary Art.\"\" The thesis concludes with the assertion that we must fundamentally re-evaluate the ways in which Japanese art is represented, particularly within the United States.\"","abstract_html":""This thesis examines Murakami Takashi’s Superflat theory and exhibition as well as the ramifications of its success. Developed through the 1990s and the early 2000s, Murakami’s Superflat theory attempts to prove a direct connection between the aesthetics of Edo period (1603-1868) and contemporary Japanese art. Murakami built his own production studio and branding devices as an attempt to further codify Superflat as a unique movement in Japanese art. As a result of Murakami’s tactics and the popularity of his theory in North America and Europe, many of his contemporaries are frequently analyzed through the lens of Superflat. Yet, the totalizing effect of the Superflat theory does disservice to the majority of Japanese contemporary artists whose work has very little in relation to Murakami’s pop aesthetic. To explore how Murakami achieved this result, this thesis first analyzes the art historical claims made in the Superflat theory. This is followed by an examination of the impetus for and contextualization of the creation of Superflat. As an example of the effect of Murakami’s discursive dominance over conversations of Japanese art in North America, the thesis concludes with an analysis of David Elliott’s 2011 Japan Society exhibition titled ""Bye Bye Kiity!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Contemporary Art."" The thesis concludes with the assertion that we must fundamentally re-evaluate the ways in which Japanese art is represented, particularly within the United States."","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Raymond, Andrew Colin"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Asian Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-03-02T19:33:07Z","date_published":"2016-03-02T19:33:07Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:32Z","subjects":["Murakami","Murakami Takashi","Superflat","Super Flat","Elliott","David Elliott","Little Boy","Bye Bye Kitty","Contemporary Japanese Art","Japanese Art","Aida","Aida Makoto","Ikeda","Ikeda Manabu","Nara","Nara Yoshitomo","Azuma","Azuma Hiroki","Sawaragi","Sawaragi Noi","Lyotard","Jean-François Lyotard","Orientalism","Postmodern Art","Danto","Arthur Danto","Japan Society","Curation","Anime","Manga","Favell","Adrian Favell","Kawaii","Neo pop","Neo-pop"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2015 A. Colin Raymond"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88947","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Raymond, Andrew Colin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2016-03-02T19:33:07Z","2015-09-25","2015-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Asian Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Murakami","Murakami Takashi","Superflat","Super Flat","Elliott","David Elliott","Little Boy","Bye Bye Kitty","Contemporary Japanese Art","Japanese Art","Aida","Aida Makoto","Ikeda","Ikeda Manabu","Nara","Nara Yoshitomo","Azuma","Azuma Hiroki","Sawaragi","Sawaragi Noi","Lyotard","Jean-François Lyotard","Orientalism","Postmodern Art","Danto","Arthur Danto","Japan Society","Curation","Anime","Manga","Favell","Adrian Favell","Kawaii","Neo pop","Neo-pop"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2015 A. Colin Raymond"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88947"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["\"This thesis examines Murakami Takashi’s Superflat theory and exhibition as well as the ramifications of its success. Developed through the 1990s and the early 2000s, Murakami’s Superflat theory attempts to prove a direct connection between the aesthetics of Edo period (1603-1868) and contemporary Japanese art. Murakami built his own production studio and branding devices as an attempt to further codify Superflat as a unique movement in Japanese art. As a result of Murakami’s tactics and the popularity of his theory in North America and Europe, many of his contemporaries are frequently analyzed through the lens of Superflat. Yet, the totalizing effect of the Superflat theory does disservice to the majority of Japanese contemporary artists whose work has very little in relation to Murakami’s pop aesthetic. To explore how Murakami achieved this result, this thesis first analyzes the art historical claims made in the Superflat theory. This is followed by an examination of the impetus for and contextualization of the creation of Superflat. As an example of the effect of Murakami’s discursive dominance over conversations of Japanese art in North America, the thesis concludes with an analysis of David Elliott’s 2011 Japan Society exhibition titled \"\"Bye Bye Kiity!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Contemporary Art.\"\" The thesis concludes with the assertion that we must fundamentally re-evaluate the ways in which Japanese art is represented, particularly within the United States.\"","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2016-03-02 without embargo terms","The student, Andrew Raymond, accepted the attached license on 2015-09-16 at 23:58.","The student, Andrew Raymond, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2015-09-17 at 00:38.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2015-09-25 at 15:00.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #8690 on 2016-03-02 at 12:49:15","Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-02T19:33:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 RAYMOND-THESIS-2015.pdf: 9527862 bytes, checksum: 773b9dceaeba8734489d4ecc4bc08e5e (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4211 bytes, checksum: 61393a30738881d699f8e664f7a71cd1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-25"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Re-evaluating Murakami's Superflat: toward a contextualized interpretation of contemporary Japanese art"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Raymond, Andrew Colin"],"dc:date":["2016-03-02T19:33:07Z","2015-09-25","2015-12"],"dc:description":["\"This thesis examines Murakami Takashi’s Superflat theory and exhibition as well as the ramifications of its success. Developed through the 1990s and the early 2000s, Murakami’s Superflat theory attempts to prove a direct connection between the aesthetics of Edo period (1603-1868) and contemporary Japanese art. Murakami built his own production studio and branding devices as an attempt to further codify Superflat as a unique movement in Japanese art. As a result of Murakami’s tactics and the popularity of his theory in North America and Europe, many of his contemporaries are frequently analyzed through the lens of Superflat. Yet, the totalizing effect of the Superflat theory does disservice to the majority of Japanese contemporary artists whose work has very little in relation to Murakami’s pop aesthetic. To explore how Murakami achieved this result, this thesis first analyzes the art historical claims made in the Superflat theory. This is followed by an examination of the impetus for and contextualization of the creation of Superflat. As an example of the effect of Murakami’s discursive dominance over conversations of Japanese art in North America, the thesis concludes with an analysis of David Elliott’s 2011 Japan Society exhibition titled \"\"Bye Bye Kiity!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Contemporary Art.\"\" The thesis concludes with the assertion that we must fundamentally re-evaluate the ways in which Japanese art is represented, particularly within the United States.\"","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2016-03-02 without embargo terms","The student, Andrew Raymond, accepted the attached license on 2015-09-16 at 23:58.","The student, Andrew Raymond, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2015-09-17 at 00:38.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2015-09-25 at 15:00.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #8690 on 2016-03-02 at 12:49:15","Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-02T19:33:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 RAYMOND-THESIS-2015.pdf: 9527862 bytes, checksum: 773b9dceaeba8734489d4ecc4bc08e5e (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4211 bytes, checksum: 61393a30738881d699f8e664f7a71cd1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-25"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88947"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2015 A. Colin Raymond"],"dc:subject":["Murakami","Murakami Takashi","Superflat","Super Flat","Elliott","David Elliott","Little Boy","Bye Bye Kitty","Contemporary Japanese Art","Japanese Art","Aida","Aida Makoto","Ikeda","Ikeda Manabu","Nara","Nara Yoshitomo","Azuma","Azuma Hiroki","Sawaragi","Sawaragi Noi","Lyotard","Jean-François Lyotard","Orientalism","Postmodern Art","Danto","Arthur Danto","Japan Society","Curation","Anime","Manga","Favell","Adrian Favell","Kawaii","Neo pop","Neo-pop"],"dc:title":["Re-evaluating Murakami's Superflat: toward a contextualized interpretation of contemporary Japanese art"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Asian Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:32Z"}