Yoshitomo Nara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yoshitomo Nara born 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan, is a contemporary Japanese
Pop artist. He currently lives and works in Tokyo, though his artwork
has been exhibited worldwide. Nara received his B.F.A. (1985) and an
M.F.A. (1987) from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and
Music. Between 1988 and 1993, Nara studied at the Kunstakademie
Düsseldorf, in Germany. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since
1984. He is represented in New York City by Marianne Boesky Gallery and
in Los Angeles by Blum & Poe.
Nara first came to the fore of the art world during Japan’s Pop art
movement in the 1990s. The subject matter of his sculptures and
paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly
innocuous subject (often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with
confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. But these
children, who appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, sometimes
brandish weapons like knives and saws. Their wide eyes often hold
accusatory looks that could be sleepy-eyed irritation at being awoken
from a nap—or that could be undiluted expressions of hate.. Nara, however, does not see his weapon-wielding subjects as
aggressors. "Look at them, they [the weapons] are so small, like toys.
Do you think they could fight with those?" he says. "I don’t think so.
Rather, I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all
around them, who are holding bigger knives…"Nara’s own explanation of his work, then, casts us as the aggressors
guilty of betraying and attacking childhood innocence. When cast in that
light, Nara incriminates himself as well, for his art is above all based
upon the perversion of otherwise innocent subjects. Lauded by art critics and hipsters alike, Nara’s bizarrely intriguing
works have gained him a cult following around the world.
The manga and anime of his 1960s childhood are both clear influences
on Nara's stylized, large-eyed figures. Nara subverts these typically
cute images, however, by infusing his works with horror-like imagery.
This juxtaposition of human evil with the innocent child may be a
reaction to Japan's rigid social conventions. The punk rock music of Nara's youth has also influenced the artist's
work. Recalling a similar – if more unsettling – image of rebellious,
violent youth, Nara's art embraces the punk ethos. That said, Nara has
also cited traditions as varied as Renaissance painting, literature,
illustration, and graffiti as further inspiration.
But perhaps most significantly, Nara’s upbringing in post-World War
II Japan profoundly affected his mindset and, subsequently, his artwork
as well. He grew up in a time when Japan was experiencing an inundation
of Western pop culture; comic books, Walt Disney animation, and Western
rock music are just a few examples. Additionally, Nara was raised in the
isolated countryside as a latchkey child of working-class parents, so he
was often left alone with little to do but explore his young
imagination. The fiercely independent subjects that populate so much of
his artwork may be a reaction to Nara's own largely independent
childhood.
