A Kaleidoscopic Affair

Louis Vuitton and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami join forces once again, after 20 years.

- FARHAN SHAH

IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO when Takashi Murakami emerged as a rising Japanese artist with a distinctive style influenced by traditional Japanese flat compositions and the bold, striking imagery of manga and anime.

He called it superflat, not because of the artistic style, but because of what it meant. Murakami argued that the differences in high- and low-brow culture had flattened to the point where there was little difference between tastes among the different social classes. While his art gained acclaim among art collectors and his peers, it remained largely nondescript in the public eye.