“Rather than merely offering the work for the viewers to see face-on, I want to trigger their imaginations… an experimental place where visitors find an opportunity to see themselves reflected as though my work were a mirror or a window. For people who cannot, or will not, really look, there will be nothing.”
A serene example of Yoshitomo Nara's mature practice, Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) emerges from a pivotal moment in 2005 that marks Nara's transition beyond the flat, manga-inspired characters of his early works towards depictions of more soulful and human subjects. The young female protagonist, depicted wading in a rippling white expanse, gazes at the viewer with vast, shimmering eyes that not only stare out but draw the audience in. Her glittering irises evoke an expansive galaxy, as suggested by the work's title. Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) belongs to a suite of twelve large-scale portraits Nara painted between 2004 and 2005 and is one of only four in this group to introduce his cosmic-eye motif, signifying a crucial milestone in Nara’s artistic journey. Befitting the artist’s critical importance, Nara will be the subject of a landmark retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London, opening in June 2025. Never before offered at auction and not seen in public for 20 years, the present work is a rare exemplar of the singular visual language that has cemented Nara’s position as a titan of the twenty-first century.
Nara's masterful focus on the eyes offers a profound glimpse into his subject's inner world. The girl's entrancing gaze invites viewers to contemplate not only her psychological state but also Nara’s own emotions as he paints late into the night, reminiscent of Van Gogh's introspective nocturnal gaze in Starry Night over the Rhone (1888). Nara recognises eyes as a bridge between subject and viewer – a gateway to one's soul. By rendering the irises with uncanny depth and kaleidoscopic glittering detail, he transforms the painting from a mere image to an emotional landscape, transcending visual representation. Nara's treatment of flesh in this work further showcases remarkable nuance, with delicate hints of green, pink, and blue subtly emerging through the soft peach surface. The painting's texture evokes a modernist sensibility, reminiscent of the rosy-cheeked women in Modigliani's and Klimt's portraits, as well as the tenderly painted surfaces of Impressionist works.
During this experimental period, characterised by softer palettes and dissolved harsh outlines, Nara transitioned from his earlier method of "drawing a line like in a drawing" towards a more painterly technique. He aimed to create works by "pressing like the French modernists," reflecting his growing interest in texture and depth, as well as his engagement with Western art traditions following his time in Europe (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Virtual Conversation with Yoshitomo Nara and Mika Yoshitake, 11 October 2020 (video)). This shift in Nara's approach toward a more tender and impressionistic handling of paint results in subjects that exhibit a profound transformation.
RIGHT: Amedeo Modigliani, Alice, circa 1918. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. Image: Bridgeman Images.
As noted by Midori Matsui, these figures now display “visible signs of humanization: their heads grew smaller, their expressions gentler, their body proportions approaching that of a real child, and their attitudes reflecting that of a thoughtful adolescent” (Midori Matsui, “A Child in the White Field: Yoshitomo Nara as a Great ‘Minor’ Artist”, in Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works, Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs, Vol. 1, Tokyo 2011, p. 344). Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) exemplifies this humanisation with its more worldly proportions and subtle flesh tones. The subject's tousled fringe imparts a childlike quality and innocence, further humanising Nara's subject. These elements showcase Nara's transition from stylised representations to more nuanced, emotionally resonant depictions of young children.
Nara's Large-Scale Girl Paintings, 2004-05
Art © 2025 Yoshitomo Nara
Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) showcases yet another recurring motif in Nara's oeuvre – the subject wading in water. This imagery places Nara within an art historical and religious lineage while subtly referencing his passion for music. The puddle motif, appearing in Nara's works since the 1980s, draws inspiration from the cover of singer John Hiatt's 1975 album Overcoats, which depicts the musician half-submerged in water. Water holds profound symbolism across cultures, from the Christian rite of baptism to the Buddhist ritual of pudu. In Nara's work, the milky lake carries a universal resonance, embodying healing, deliverance, and rebirth. For Nara, this imagery also serves as a metaphor for the relationship between an individual's inner world and external reality, with the subject suspended in an ethereal space, seemingly floating in and out of dream-like trance. In this painting, the lake stretches infinitely beyond the confines of the canvas as an allegory for a world of boundless expanse, mirrored in the seemingly endless space of the subject's cosmic eyes, which transport the viewer into a realm beyond the physical.
Standing up close, one experiences an almost spiritual engagement with the shimmering surface of her eyes and immaculately rendered skin. This effect recalls Rothko’s colour fields or Monet's Nymphéas, creating a dynamic interplay between viewer and painting where the surface continually evolves. As Nara has described in direct reference to his connection with Rothko, “it’s not about it being an image of a young girl, it’s about the many levels of paint that have built up. Those layers draw out the sensibility of each person who looks at it. I think it provokes you to have a conversation with yourself. That’s what makes the color paintings very different from the black-and-white line drawings” (the artist in conversation with Robert Ayers, “‘I Was Really Unthinking Before’: Yoshitomo Nara on His Recent Work and His Show at Pace Gallery in New York,” 2017, ArtNews (online)).
Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) represents a pivotal moment in Nara's artistic journey, harmoniously combining his signature motifs into a complex yet serene visual experience. The work bridges diverse artistic elements, connecting "high, low and kitsch; East and West," as described by New York Times critic Roberta Smith. By integrating Western modernist techniques with his distinctive manga-inspired aesthetic, Nara creates a painting that invites deeper contemplation of both the subject’s psyche and our own emotional responses.