Healing with Art: Yoshitomo Nara's Pivotal Shift into the Emotional Landscape

I mpressive in size and arresting in its visual power, Oddly Cozy is a dazzling, beguiling painting by the revered Yoshitomo Nara, a superlative example from the artist’s mature works that has never before been offered at auction. Larger than life, the tenderly depicted protagonist of Oddly Cozy emerges from a luminous chartreuse background, absorbing the viewer into her sparkling eyes of different colours, windows to distant galaxies or cosmic worlds. Beautifully detailed through meticulous layering of pigment, the eyes of this work are the soul of the painting, demonstrative of the artist’s move away from the early mischievous stare of his figures to his later ethereal dreamy gaze. The epitome of Nara’s later works, this painting was exhibited at the artist’s solo show at Pace Gallery in New York in 2013, signaling Nara’s mature, more meditative and introspective aesthetic underscored by deeper contemplations on the self and the world.

Oddly Cozy is a quintessential example from a distinctive body of work that Nara began in 2012, after his return to the studio in April of that year following the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011. 2012 was a significant year for the artist, coming to terms with the sheer devastation of the earthquake and resulting tsunami that left more than 450,000 people homeless and caused more than 18,000 people to lose their lives.

Deeply connected to the northeastern part of Japan which was hit worst by the earthquake, the natural disaster triggered a great change in his artistic practice and a shift in his aesthetic, as seen in Oddly Cozy. After an initial period of reflection and engagement with local communities worst hit by the disaster, Nara experienced what Yeewan Koon describes as “a fresh surge of creative energy” (Yeewan Koon, Yoshitomo Nara, London, 2020, p. 253). Executed the year after his return to the studio, Oddly Cozy is demonstrative of this shift in the artist’s visual language, softening the once menacing expressions of his little girls, depicting his figures from the bust upwards, expanding his colour palette and experimenting with a shimmering translucency through more meditative layering.

Miss Spring (2012) was the first iteration of this new body of bust portraits, depicting a wide-eyed girl against a bubblegum pink background, shimmering with a chromatic luminosity. A year later, Nara had arguably refined his new imagery to create the harmonious, beguiling portrait, Oddly Cozy.

Depicted against a background of a delicate shade of chartreuse, the little girl in Oddly Cozy stares out at the viewer, her mouth set in an inscrutable line. In the mid-2000s, Nara began to soften his characters’ threatening dispositions, portraying subtler, more ambiguous expressions. In Oddly Cozy, it is difficult to decipher what the protagonist is thinking, but her unwavering stare urges the viewer to try and understand her inner thoughts. Her wide eyes of contrasting colours command the viewer’s attention, consuming the viewer into their cosmic orbs, as if windows to far corners of the universe.

Indeed, Nara’s treatment of his subject’s eyes changed around 2005, becoming more realistic through the deft interplay of light and shadow. The artist commented: “They say human eyes are the mirror of the soul, and I used to draw them too carelessly. Say, to express the anger, I just drew some triangular eyes. I drew obviously-angry eyes, projected my anger there, and somehow released my pent-up emotions. [Afterwards] I became more interested in expressing complex feelings in a more complex way” (the artist cited in “An interview with Yoshitomo Nara”, Asymptote Journal, Hideo Furukawa, moderated by Sayuri Okamoto, November 2013). While each eye is rendered in a different variety of tonal hues—one a warm terracotta, the other an olive green—together, they harmoniously unite the kaleidoscope of autumnal colours that make up the canvas. Further, the different coloured irises operate alongside other juxtapositions within the canvas, notably the square patches of colour on the girl’s clothing that contrast with the globular, more organic forms that appear to float within the figure’s hair. These dichotomies of circular and square, and warmth and coolness, at first seem discordant yet function in harmony, perhaps engendering the title, “Oddly Cozy”.

In Oddly Cozy, Nara is masterful in his handling of colour and manipulation of light. Indeed, Yeewan Koon argues: “Nara’s treatment of colour is the most distinctive shift in his recent paintings. His palette feels more harmonised, even as it ranges from candy-coloured concoctions of minty green and creamy pink to midtonal fields of marine blue and jeweled cerise. There is less contrast between colours and very few dark tones, and although the hues are complex and varied, there is never a sense of clutter on the canvas” (Yeewan Koon, Yoshitomo Nara, London, 2020, p. 253). Here, the colours appear to dance across the canvas, emanating a distinct musicality or rhythmicality that adds another dimension to the work. The tonal complexity of Nara’s work also aids in the illusion of three-dimensionality, further differentiating works such as Oddly Cozy from earlier works in his oeuvre.

Nara’s process is discernibly more meditative and introspective in Oddly Cozy than earlier works, achieving a shimmering translucency through his deft layering of acrylic paint. In reference to Nara’s mature paintings from 2012 onwards, Koon comments: “The formal harmony in Miss Spring is unexpected, because it reveals a patience in its making, one that belies the complexity of the artist’s emotions after Fukushima. As with his sculptures from this time, the painting retains the material traces of its creation, and the artist rewards those who look closely beneath and in between the orbs, freckles, and swathes, where glimpses of the many layers of paint underneath are revealed” (Ibid., p. 256). This skillful layering and traces of the process of creation is particularly evident in the luminous background that Nara achieves through the sensitive handling of paint. Indeed, small patches of bright fuchsia can be seen at the very corners of the canvas: “a colour that Nara is not fond of and that he applied only so that he could paint over it with softer colours. The fuschia acts as a jarring contrast, something he battles against to reclaim the canvas” (Ibid., p. 256). Through this layering, Nara is able to achieve impressive tonal depth, and small traces of fuschia at the corners of the image exist as wonderful reminders of the process of Oddly Cozy’s creation.

Arguably Japan’s most internationally acclaimed painter working today with a global collector base, Yoshitomo Nara has captivated the imaginations of collectors and critics around the world, achieving institutional recognition. Testament to the importance of the artist, Nara has recently been honoured with his first major international retrospective and first solo exhibition in Mainland China at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai.

本 作《格外的舒適 》尺幅龐大，充滿感染力，是藝術大師奈良美智的巔峰傑作。畫中女孩身處於光芒閃耀的黃綠色背景之前，雙目千色閃亮，仿如通往遙遠星系的窗戶，讓觀者目眩神馳，一見難忘。女孩的眼睛是全畫的靈魂，藝術家以層層交曡的顔料細緻刻劃，展示藝術家從早期人物眼神桀驁不馴、不懷好意的描繪到後來畫中主角目光空靈夢幻的轉變。這幅畫是奈良近年的精彩佳作，2013 年亮相紐約佩斯畫廊個展，標誌著奈良成熟內省的美學風格，以及對自我和世界更深沉的思考。

本作屬於一組始創於2012年4月的作品，而在這一年前的3月，日本東部發生大地震，地震和海嘯造成了巨大的破壞，導致過萬人喪生、數十萬人無家可歸。奈良在2012 年開始慢慢接受了這個事實，重新開始創作，所以這一年對他來說意義深重。他與受地震影響最嚴重的日本東北部淵源深厚，自然災害觸發了其藝術創作和審美哲學的重大變化，這種變化從《格外的舒適》當中可以看到。他在接觸過受災最嚴重的社區並初步反思之後，經歷了藝評者官綺雲所描述的「一股新的創造動力」（官綺雲，奈良美智，倫敦，2020 年，頁253）。他在回到畫室後的第二年創作了本畫，從中可見到他在此期間視覺語言的轉變。他筆下總是目露凶光的小女孩形象變得比較柔和平靜；此外，他在此時期開始創作半身像，並採用更豐富的色調，耐心地逐層營造畫面閃爍的半透明感。《春天小姐》（2012年）是這組全新半身像的第一幅作品，背景是一片泡泡糖般的粉紅色，畫中女孩雙目圓睜，眼裡閃爍著華彩。一年後，奈良創作了這幅作品，繼續用心塑造這個迷人可親的新形象。

本畫中，女孩兒身後是淡黃綠色的背景，她凝視觀者，嘴唇猶如一條橫線，神情令人費解。奈良在 2000 年代中期開始改變筆下人物桀驁不馴的神態，取而代之的是更微妙、更模棱兩可的表情。我們無法知道本畫主角的心裏在想什麼，但她堅定的目光卻讓觀者殷切希望要了解她的內心。她一雙大眼睛顔色相映成鮮明對比，深深吸引著觀者，帶領他們深入眼睛裏面的遼闊宇宙，這雙眼仿佛就是通往遙遠星系的窗戶。

事實上，奈良對眼睛的處理在 2005 年左右開始變化，通過巧妙的光影處理成就更寫實的手法。他曾表示：「人們說眼睛是靈魂的鏡子，我以前太粗心了。例如說，為了表達憤怒，我就把眼睛畫成三角形。我筆下的眼睛帶著明顯的憤怒，我把憤怒投射進去，不知怎的釋放了壓抑著的情緒。 [後來]我比較傾向以更複雜的方式表達複雜的感受」（引述自〈奈良美智訪談〉，《漸近線期刊》，古川日出男， Sayuri Okamoto 主持，2013 年 11 月）。雖然畫中人兩隻眼睛各自呈現色調不同——一隻是溫暖的赤土色，另一隻是橄欖綠——但加起來卻讓畫布上猶如萬花筒那樣的秋季色彩顯得非常和諧。此外，不同顏色的眼睛與畫中其他元素遙遙呼應，女孩身上衣服的方形色塊與看起來漂浮在頭髮上的不規則圓球對比鮮明。圓與方、暖與冷看似矛盾，但卻又有種和諧的效果。

《格外的舒適》展示了奈良處理色彩和光線的出色表現。 官綺雲認為：「奈良的色彩處理是他近期最明顯的轉變。雖然他運用了多種不同色調，從混合薄荷綠和奶油粉色的糖果色，到海藍色和寶石櫻桃紅甚至中間色調，但整體感覺還是比以前更和諧。 顏色之間的對比也比較少了，很少用上深色，雖然色調複雜多樣，但卻沒有雜亂感。」（官綺雲，《奈良美智》，倫敦，2020 年，頁 253 ）。 本作的色彩似乎在畫布上翩翩起舞，具有一種獨特的音樂感或節奏感，為作品增添了另一層次。 奈良作品的複雜色調營造出立體的感覺，這也是《格外的舒適》等作品與早期作品中的另一個區別。

《格外的舒適》的創作過程明顯比早期作品更加內省，奈良靈巧地把壓克力彩逐層塗上，營造閃爍的半透明效果。官綺雲評論奈良從 2012 年開始的成熟時期畫作時有如此説法：「《春天小姐》在形式出奇地和諧，因為它流露出一種創作過程當中的耐心，這種心情和奈良在福島（地震）之後的複雜情感互相違背。和這個時期的雕塑作品一樣，這幅畫保留了創作時候所留下的、物質上的痕跡。球體、斑點和條紋底下可以看到層層交曡的顏料，背後暗藏玄機，藝術家讓細心觀察的人都能得到回報。」（出處同上，頁256 ）。藝術家小心塗抹顔料，營造作品背景閃亮生光的效果，巧妙的層次感和創作過程在作品的背景中尤為明顯。事實上，在畫布的角落處可以看到小塊的明亮紫紅色塊：「奈良不喜歡這種顏色，他之所以用它，只是為了在上面塗上更柔和的顏色。在這裏，紫紅色的作用是要營造不和諧的對比，他與之抗爭，以回復畫布（的本色）」（同上，頁 256 ）。通過這種層次感，奈良成功營造出可觀的色彩深度，畫面角落的小紫紅色痕跡提醒觀者這幅作品的創作過程，可謂神來之筆。

奈良美智可說是當今國際聲譽最鼎盛的日本畫家，其作品獲得世界各地藏家青睞，而且備受博物館及藝術機構推崇。奈良最近舉行首個大型國際回顧展， 並在上海余德耀美術館舉辦在中國內地的首場個展，可見他在藝壇上的非凡地位。