b. 1959
Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara’s deceptively simple paintings, sculptures, and drawings draw on the pop culture aesthetics of manga, Walt Disney cartoons, and punk rock. The artist populates his work with alternately adorable and sinister child characters, who run amok in flat backgrounds rendered with simple bold lines and solid hues. Nara explores imagination and the individual, and his more complex canvases consider the intersection of figure and ground. Nara received his MFA from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and has exhibited in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and beyond. His work belongs to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Rubell Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, the Long Museum, the Aomori Museum of Art, and many other collections. Nara’s paintings have sold for seven figures on the secondary market.
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About the artist
Perhaps Japan’s best known living artist, Yoshitomo Nara’s art is instantly recognisable. His iconic yet seemingly simple paintings, sculptures and drawings take influence from cartoons, music and his own life. Best known are his paintings of children; sometimes sad, sometimes sinister, these figures enjoy a global cult popularity and following, and reflective market pricing.
Born and raised in northern Japan, Nara is said to have had a lonely childhood, seeking comfort in music and animals. After pursuing a fine art education in Japan, Nara relocated to Germany from 1988 and became absorbed by Neo-Expressionism and punk rock. Both would go on to inform his artistic style.
After 12 years in Germany, Nara returned to Japan. The artist first enjoyed notoriety as a part of his home country’s Pop Art movement of the 1990s, creating simple artworks depicting cartoon-like characters.
Rise to Fame
A 1995 solo show with Tokyo’s SCAI the Bathhouse gallery marked a turning point in Nara’s career; hosted by LA based gallery Blum and Poe, the show was America's introduction to Nara. Through artworks like his In The Deepest Puddle, the exhibition brought together many of the signature themes found throughout his later work: loneliness, childhood anxiety and rebellion. Since then, Nara has had almost 40 solo exhibitions and his works feature in the collections of some of the most renowned museums in the world, from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to The Museum of Modern Art.
Today, Nara’s work is massively popular, enjoying a cult-like status that transcends age, culture, or location. Critics attribute the popularity of Nara’s work to his transmission of nostalgia and angst through childlike figures. Despite their appearance, the emotions portrayed could be applicable to anyone from anywhere. Art critic Robert Smith described Nara’s work as 'high, low and kitsch; East and West; grown-up, adolescent and infantile.'
Influences
Nara is said to take inspiration from children’s books, cartoon imagery and manga - influences that are perhaps most immediately apparent in the visual language of his artworks.
Nara’s work mirrors his life experience, reflecting his childhood as a lonely, youngest child of two working parents. The isolated, often unhappy children in his artworks are direct derivatives of this time in his life, and the cartoon style in which they are portrayed is influenced by the various cartoon cultures that he was exposed to as a boy.
Nara has also cited the Japan he grew up in and the period of change undergone by the country as a key factor in his work: 'I was lucky that I lived through a transition period in Japanese society; a time when, for example, I saw the packaging of apples change from wooden boxes to paper bags, or the way miso-making changed from traditional handwork to modern manufacture.'
Current Market
Nara's high market value is a testament to the enduring appeal of his unique artistic style and emotional resonance, and may serve as inspiration for these emerging artists seeking to make their mark in the contemporary art world.
Nara's works have also been highly valued on the art market, with prices often reaching into the millions of dollars. One of his most expensive works, "Knife Behind Back," sold for over $25 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2019, setting a new auction record.
Nara's influence on the Japanese Pop Art movement has helped to establish a broader cultural appreciation for contemporary Asian art, and may inspire other artists from the region to explore similar themes and styles in their own work.
With a track record of consistently high market values and a well-established reputation as one of the foremost figures in the Japanese Pop Art movement, Nara's works offer a unique opportunity for investors to both appreciate their artistic value and reap financial rewards.
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