Lot 120
  • 120

Nara Yoshitomo

Estimate
2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD
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Description

  • Nara Yoshitomo
  • No.1
  • acrylic on cotton mounted on FRP
  • 36 by 27.5 cm; 14¼ by 10¾ in.
signed, titled and dated 96 on the reverse

Provenance

Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)
Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
Sotheby's, London, 22 June 2006, lot 355
Private Collection, Asia
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Literature

Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works 1984-2010, Volume I, Bijutsu Shuppan Sha, Tokyo, Japan, 2011, p.143 (illustrated in colour)

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. Evidence of scarce fine hairline cracks on the thickly painted areas and very minor undulation of the lower left painted surface are consistent with artist's chosen medium and method of execution. No evidence of retouching when examined under ultraviolet light. Framed. Please refer to the following condition and treatment report prepared by Youjin Noh of Youjin Noh Conservation.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

No.1 is one of only two rare Nara Yoshitomo works produced in the special form of an 18th century British portrait medallion. A genre invented during the Renaissance, portrait medallions rose to prominence again in the last quarter of the 18th century, featuring engraved busts or profiles of heroes and popular figures. The present work is Nara’s contemporary take on the portrait medallion, featuring the artist’s iconic scowling little girl mounted on an oval base with an indented relief. Feisty and defiant, a cheeky heroine in her own right, No.1 encapsulates and epitomizes the epochal emancipatory spirit of Nara’s paradigmatic oeuvre.

One of the most recognized living contemporary artists today, Nara’s endearing creations fuse anime, Pop Art and punk rock, combining mischief and innocence to convey a beguiling sugary sweetness on the surface that melts to reveal darker angsts of childhood loneliness. The artist’s reductive figurations draw also on Modernism’s sign-like shorthand language of images to leaving endless space for fantasy for the child as well as adult viewer. Formally, his works evoke hints of traditional Japanese forms from the East; as Stephan Trescher writes, “[…]portrait in front of a neutral background, the relationship between figure and the picture plane, the image-object and the empty surrounding space, the connection between the image sign and the text sign, the blurring of the boundary between printmaking and painting – all can be found in Nara’s art as well as in colored prints from the 18th and 19th centuries by Hiroshige, Hokusai or Utamaro” (Stephan Trescher, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog”, in Yoshitomo Nara: Lullaby Supermarket, Michael Zink Gallery, Munich, 2002, p. 11).

Conceptually, Nara’s oeuvre can be seen as “both a detached commentary on the pressures of Japanese adolescence and a symptom of it” (David McNeill, "Yoshitomo Nara: neo-pop artist who defies categorisation", South China Morning Post Magazine, March 5, 2015), while his revolutionary aesthetic constitutes a seamless unification of Eastern and Western themes and motifs. In American critic Roberta Smith’s words, Nara is “one of the most egalitarian visual artists since Keith Haring”, with art that bridges “high, low and kitsch; East and West; grown-up, adolescent and infantile” and is “so seamless as to render such distinctions almost moot” (Ibid).