Yoshitomo Nara

executed in 2008

The work is in good condition overall. There are no apparently condition issues with this work.
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This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tomio Koyama Gallery Inc., Tokyo.

Known to work in his studio with punk rock playing at full volume in the background, Yoshitomo Nara provides us with a glimpse into his singular imaginary world through his painting. Nara's work is influenced by his unique upbringing and personality, and the current work, It's Everything (2008), reflects his love of punk rock music, which was prevalent throughout his youth. A dedicated rock fan, his exhibition openings have included live performances by Japanese bands. This, combined with his collaborations with various musicians, has won him a strong following outside the traditional art world.

 

Yoshitomo Nara is an artist that has achieved cult status in his native Japan. Born in 1959 he first came to the fore of the art world during Japan's Pop art movement in the 1990s, and his works have subsequently gained a following across the world. He is highly influential in Japan and is famous for his simple portraits of seemingly innocent and angelic little children, applied with bold black outlines, filled with characteristic flat pastel hues against an empty background. 

 

His child protagonists are always rendered with their oversized heads disproportionate to their bodies, in a typically cute or "kawaii" manner. On close inspection, however, his subjects often betray an underlying sense of anger, hatred or proud rebellion, through a subtle accusatory look but also with more obvious imagery; the children sometimes brandishing bloody weapons and carrying bold, defiant stares. This juxtaposition of violence with the innocence of youth provides a commentary on how children approach the trials and tribulations of growing up. Despite being young they appear wise beyond their years, and sense what the world has in store for them. It is possible that they represent the artist as an alter ego or if not him then his generation and their reaction to Japan's traditionally rigid social conventions, or possibly the chaotic turmoil children in general are faced with when they enter puberty, often a time of confusion and rebellion. Through their imagery we are reminded that we all grow up too fast, and Nara invites us to value the inherent beauty of youth.

 

The children appear one at a time, never with friends or in a group; Nara himself a latchkey child of working class parents, he spent much of his youth alone: the lonely imagery of his work therefore reflects the artist's largely independent childhood. Nara's different works are very much like a jig-saw puzzle of his life experiences, each work a different piece in the puzzle, connecting his own childhood memories with the present.

 

As well as embracing the punk ethos of rebellion, Nara's work also draws inspiration from a variety of other sources including Renaissance painting, literature and illustration; however, it was his upbringing in post-World War II Japan that most profoundly affected Nara's mindset and subsequent artistic production. In the second half of the 20th century the formerly isolated and traditional civilization of Japan was flooded by modern popular culture from the West: including comic books, Western cartoon animation, and Western rock music. The manga and anime that in part subsequently derived from this cultural exchange has a clear influence on Nara's stylized children.

 

It's Everything typically portrays a young child as the protagonist of the work. Playing a guitar and standing at the right of the picture in a pale green dress on top a stage emblazoned with the words, "IT'S EVERYTHING", the child has a brown mop of hair and large brown eyes which look to the left of the composition, where the numbers, "1, 2, 3, 4" are boldly scrawled.

 

The work is in the format referred to by Nara as a "Billboard Painting Panel", which he creates in association with or as part of larger installation works featuring the artist's huts or houses that double as mini art studios. They include Torre de Málaga (2007), built from industrial and waste material from the city of Malaga. The hut/house structures are hollow and present interiors replete with drawings and paintings all created in the artist's hand, and featuring stuffed animals from fans selected by the artist. Nara's experiments with such wooden structures started with Nara's travelling exhibition I DON'T MIND IF YOU FORGET ME which opened in 2001 at the Yokohama Museum of Art. This was the artist's first major solo event and for a relatively young artist to hold a solo show at a public art museum was confirmation of his position at the forefront of Japanese contemporary art, and his works have subsequently found their way into the collections of art museums across the world.

 

In this key exhibition he created a gallery 'room' from old wood boards reclaimed from construction sites, which allowed works to be hung in a different environment from the typically sterile walls of the museum. In 2003 he met the crafts team GRAF, who, together with Nara formed the collective YNG (Yoshitomo Nara + Graf). He began a series of works with this Osaka-based creative unit whereby art was displayed in and outside these huts rather than in a gallery, creating a new dimensional space. Nara's exhibition A to Z in 2006, held in his hometown of Hirosaki in northern Japan, included work by nine different artists that was housed in over forty huts. A unique aspect of this exhibition was that Nara allowed the public to help make the huts, once again displaying his relaxed approach to collaborating with others. "I value freedom above all else", he said, "I always want to be free from everything, and I like people around me to be free as well. In this sense I am delighted that people from Hirosaki and from all over Japan came together of their own free will to take part in this project".[1]

 

Representing the latest trend in this line of his artistic creation, It's Everything is evidence of Yoshitomo Nara's versatility and originality as an artist that remains ever open to new ideas within his constantly evolving oeuvre.

 

[1] Yumi Yamaguchi, Warriors of Art, Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, 2007, p.108.