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拍品專文
Tokyo-based artist Yoshitomo Nara creates deceptively simple paintings, sculptures and drawings, which have gained him international recognition. His neo-pop or self declared superflat pictures are populated by seductive figures and animals, who, at first sight, seem touching but in the end full of aggression and tension. With these both innocent and grim child-figures, Nara expresses an under flow within the Japanese society, with its rigid social structures. His pictures do not seem very complicated. The style is intentionally flat, with blunt, uniformly thick lines. This, combined with a lack of modeling, texture or strong coloration, seems to force attention to the subject matter. Through using a dry and limited color palette, Nara purposefully creates a rough painting surface with a deceptive immaturity. Nara's work immediately connects with us though, because we sense that beneath the sparse execution is a direct portal to a personal, almost intuitive vision. Despite Nara's formal painting training in Japan, an extended education in Cologne, Germany, and a ceaselessly impressive list of monumental institutions and venues which held his exhibitions, Nara's undemanding compositions are humble and approachable.
Born in 1959, Nara was raised during an era in Japan defined by aggressive economic development and an invasion of Western pop culture - including the animation of Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Like many Japanese children of this era, Nara was a "latch-key kid" who spent his time after school in a rural area of Japan with only his imagination and pets for company. Absorbing the excitements of new technology through the medium of the television, Nara, like many others, uses the obsession with Japanese Manga to create cartoon-like images reminiscent of video games. Not only does his work speak an international language of youthful boredom, alienation, anger and bewilderment, but it also speaks to adults who retain a connection with their inner child. Next to the Manga figures, other sources of inspiration were drawn from Punk or Rock music, 20th century children's books and even Giotto, to name a few.
How did the cat get so fat?, for example, is strongly representative of Nara's affiliation to Punk or Rock movements, embodying the child in this work with a rebellious and anti-conformist attitude. The text in the painting was taken from the lyrics of a song by the famous San Francisco punkband NOFX from the late 90s. This song, Perfect government, was in fact anti-governmental, strongly opposing the existing Bush administration in Washinton. As a typical punk song, it sang of anarchy, of bringing the system down and of radical change in the USA.
How did the cat get so fat? is at first glance rough and simplistic yet upon longer considerations the deliberate lack of skill reveals an ability to appeal to the masses, his embrace of common scenarios and the easily recognizable iconic figures of children is powerfully indicative of Nara's prowess as a commutative artist, deserving him the title as a leading artist of the 21st Century.
To be sold with a certificate of authenticity stamped by Galería & Ediciones Ginkgo, Madrid.
Born in 1959, Nara was raised during an era in Japan defined by aggressive economic development and an invasion of Western pop culture - including the animation of Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Like many Japanese children of this era, Nara was a "latch-key kid" who spent his time after school in a rural area of Japan with only his imagination and pets for company. Absorbing the excitements of new technology through the medium of the television, Nara, like many others, uses the obsession with Japanese Manga to create cartoon-like images reminiscent of video games. Not only does his work speak an international language of youthful boredom, alienation, anger and bewilderment, but it also speaks to adults who retain a connection with their inner child. Next to the Manga figures, other sources of inspiration were drawn from Punk or Rock music, 20th century children's books and even Giotto, to name a few.
How did the cat get so fat?, for example, is strongly representative of Nara's affiliation to Punk or Rock movements, embodying the child in this work with a rebellious and anti-conformist attitude. The text in the painting was taken from the lyrics of a song by the famous San Francisco punkband NOFX from the late 90s. This song, Perfect government, was in fact anti-governmental, strongly opposing the existing Bush administration in Washinton. As a typical punk song, it sang of anarchy, of bringing the system down and of radical change in the USA.
How did the cat get so fat? is at first glance rough and simplistic yet upon longer considerations the deliberate lack of skill reveals an ability to appeal to the masses, his embrace of common scenarios and the easily recognizable iconic figures of children is powerfully indicative of Nara's prowess as a commutative artist, deserving him the title as a leading artist of the 21st Century.
To be sold with a certificate of authenticity stamped by Galería & Ediciones Ginkgo, Madrid.