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Murakami, who is credited with founding the Superflat movement, which finds inspiration and art historical significance in two-dimensional imagery like Japanese manga and anime, was making a career out of combining what was then considered “highbrow” and “lowbrow.”

The epic destruction that surrounds the Villa today adds an unnerving element to the exhibition’s art historical context.

Thought to have battled during the first and second centuries C.E., she is much more elusive than her male counterpart, the gladiator, who has been venerated thousands of times — through art, historical text, and pop culture.

These works, which measure 36 by 36 inches, are a motley combination of the art historical, Mexican cultural history and the everyday curiosities of pedestrian American culture.

This dovetails with a resurgence in Art Deco, the movement most closely associated with Lempicka, and with the current vogue for re-evaluating women who have been maligned or belittled by the art historical canon.