Yoshitomo Nara's first children's book "The Lonesome Puppy" (2008) is about the friendship between a huge dog full of joy and a determined little girl who looks evil. . And this book is what makes Nara Yoshitomo stand out from many artists: his unique depiction of children, and the extension of artistic creation to collectible toys and books, attracts him beyond the traditional boundaries of contemporary art. Many fans.
Since studying in Germany in the 1990s, Yoshitomo Nara has continued to create. His iconic portrait of a little girl has made him popular all over the world and has become a household name in many places and people. Especially after the large-scale girl painting "Knife Hidden Behind" changed hands at Sotheby's Hong Kong for 195 million in 2019 and became the most expensive artist in Japanese history, Yoshitomo Nara became one of the most popular Japanese artists on a par with Yayoi Kusama. One.
Taipei National University of the Arts Guandu Museum of Art "Nara Yoshitomo Special Exhibition" site
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I often remember their names in Nara's Contemporary Chi exhibition. Clear their looks, but I always remember their voices" live, 2021
LACMA exhibition "Nara Yoshitomo" scene, 2021
Nara will open fire three times this spring. Important exhibitions were successively held in Taipei, Dallas and Los Angeles. Among them, the solo exhibition of the artist of the same name at LACMA in Los Angeles is its largest retrospective so far.Exhibits include hundreds of important paintings, sculptures, and installations created by Yoshitomo Nara from 1984 to the present, more than 700 works on paper, and over 350 private vinyl collections by Yoshitomo Nara. The scale of the exhibition makes Yoshitomo Nara, who has never used an assistant, found it incredible, and he said, "Is all these works really made by me?" with emotion.
In the upcoming Hong Kong Spring Auction, major auction houses also spotted this opportunity and presented many blockbuster works by Yoshitomo Nara. The exhibition is a line and the lot is a point, interweaving Nara Yoshitomo's wonderful artistic picture for us . Whether you want to visit a special exhibition, plan to collect Nara Yoshitomo's works, or are simply interested in this handsome uncle, you may wish to take this opportunity to review his art journey together.
01
ROCK YOU!
Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959 on the largest island in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture. world. In early 1960, the Vietnam War broke out. In 1975, the U.S. retreat ended the war. During this period, a large number of excellent rock bands with anti-war ideas emerged. The young people's anger and auditory stimulation made Nara Yoshitomo fall into it. Most of the money he earned from working and his parents' pocket money in those years was spent on buying records. The record jacket at that time established his concept of video.
Yoshitomo Nara on the stage, he was 23 years old that year
LACMA3p img0 pspan0 psp3p img0 pspan3p img0 pspan0 pspan2 pspan3p img0 Some hand-painted album covers,Image source: artist twitter
At the LACMA retrospective, as soon as you enter the exhibition hall, the first thing you see is the 352 records collected by Yoshitomo Nara, forming a huge 32x11 matrix. These vinyl collections spanning more than 40 years, from Music and record covers have profoundly influenced Nara Yoshitomo's creation. Because for him, the two have never been separated. "While I am painting," he said, "Music will enter my ears and then come directly from my hands."
It can be said that rock changed the entire youth trend of Yoshitomo Nara. He is not like his peers. People are equally safe, but there are always many rebellious ideas. Later, he entered the University of Fine Arts and traveled to Europe twice. After graduating as an art teacher, he felt that "I should receive art education more". Finally, he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy alone in Germany, under the tutelage of AR Penck, and stayed there forever. 12 years.
Yoshitomo Nara's "Little Prince", 1988; Nara Yoshitomo's childhood works were criticized for being childish, like paintings drawn by adults.
Yoshitomo Nara "The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand", "The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand", "The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand", "The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand", 1991 img
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German years are often regarded as the starting point of Nara Yoshitomo's artistic career. Due to language barriers, cultural differences, introverted personality and other reasons, Yoshitomo Nara fell into loneliness again.Artistic creation has become his escape exit, and in constant exploration, he established the personal symbol , which depicts rebellious girls and animals. Nara girls in the 90s often have sharp eyes, and occasionally brandish a knife or cigarette, revealing a vague sense of unlucky feeling, seeming to maintain a posture of confrontation with the whole world.
Yoshitomo Nara when he was studying in Germany
Nara once said that the little girl or the animal in the pen symbolizes a kind of self-esteem, which is actually a portrayal of himself, just like It's a different self-portrait. His little girl is sometimes cute and stubborn, sometimes lonely and lonely, and sometimes more dark and aggressive. All the images are the portrayal of his life.
In the upcoming spring sale of Sotheby's in Hong Kong, Yoshitomo Nara's "Frog Girl" can be used as a vivid annotation of his creation during his stay in Germany. This painting was completed in 1998, when Nara had settled in Germany for 10 years, and the style of painting had matured. In the painting, you can see a little girl wearing a green dress standing in front of a monochromatic pearlescent background. The eyes, nose and mouth are depicted like frogs, echoing the title.
Yoshitomo Nara "The Frog Girl"
Acrylic on canvas 120x111cm made in 1998
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was the year 1998 when "The Frog Girl" was created. Yoshitomo Nara showed an obvious change. The most familiar one is the pearly background in the background of the work; since then, this feature has become a representative creative feature of Yoshitomo Nara. . The girl in this vague vacuum state presents her tiny self in a huge, indifferent and alienated world.
In addition,Compared with figures with exaggerated heads and broken limbs in the early 1990s, the little girls portrayed by Yoshitomo Nara in the late 1990s exhibited “visible anthropomorphic characteristics: their heads are smaller, their expressions are gentle, their bodies are proportioned and real. Children are closer, and their expressions and attitudes reflect the thoughtfulness of adults. At the same time, swords, guns and other elements disappear, but the sense of contradiction and conflict is expressed in a more subtle way. It can be said that "The Frog Girl" is Yoshitomo Nara One of the first batch of truly mature masterpieces.
02
Like an adult
In 2000, Nara Yoshitomo returned to Japan with the name "I DON" "T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME" exhibition. The number of visitors exceeded 90,000, setting a record for a modern art exhibition. His hometown of Hirosaki does not have a real art museum. In order to hold his exhibition, the villagers organized 3,000 volunteers.
"Nara Yoshitomo + graf A to Z" Yoshii Shuzo Refining Tile Warehouse Aomori Hirosaki
Yoshitomo Nara "Girl with Cigarette
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img img 15 He painted such a character, but it seems that he himself can’t tell: "Why do you paint such a character?I don't know why the eyes grow like this, I don't know why they ended up like this. If I create consciously, the characters I draw will be much more beautiful. But because they are not conscious, these characters may be very real. The real thing needs no reason. "In exhibitions all over Japan, Yoshitomo Nara has gradually accumulated a lot of popularity, and more and more people come to see his paintings, but he always feels at a loss when he is shy. "I am surprised that my paintings are so popular. , Not just people who engage in art, young people in general also know my paintings. It gradually made me feel the pressure of being a celebrity, and I can't tell you why. "
2007 movie "Yoshitomo Nara and his travel record" poster, the film is rated 8.5 on Douban.
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img It made Nara Yoshitomo feel obviously uncomfortable. He concentrated his manuscripts in a small room, which resembled the room he had lived in in college. Not only was it similar in size, but even the way the painting was nailed to the wall did not change. In his exhibitions in various places, such a small "house enterprise" was kept in the center of the hall, which gradually became the symbol of his exhibition.
In the LACMA exhibition, Yoshitomo Nara’s installation "My Drawing Room, 2008" is on display. This wooden house restores the artist’s creative environment, and every piece of decoration has been accompanied by Nara. Countless beloved things day and night, every manuscript is also drawn by the artist himself.
Yoshitomo Nara's "My Drawing Room" in 2008, LACMA exhibition view, 2021
in the spring season drawing details of "My Drawing Room" in,There is also such a small house "Berlin Barack, Room 1" which will be unveiled in Poly Hong Kong. This comprehensive work was specially created for the 2007 Berlin exhibition in Germany, including Nara's only second painting in his career, "The Girl in the Greenhouse". Another one was sold for HK$103 million last year, which was the artist's second highest price. In addition, there is a Kanban painting "Three Sisters" in the room, which depicts a small band composed of twin sisters.
Yoshitomo Nara "Berlin Barak, Room 1"
integrated media installation 263×317×279cm made in 2007
2021 Take The "House Enterprise" included in these works has become a perfect shelter for the children in the painting. It is Yoshitomo Nara's journey back to authenticity, and it is also an ideal utopia for every viewer to find themselves. Nara said: "I have always wanted to regain the'certainty'. It is not for the audience's visual perception, nor is it'deliberately showing off skills', but the most comfortable place to truly return to the self." And here During the period, Nara also gradually got rid of the rebellion of his youth, integrated into the native Japanese culture, and reflected on the loneliness and pain of childhood from the perspective of an adult. For example, the huge work "Impermanent Life", the simple "Life is Only One!" in the painting, was once used as the title of the artist's first large-scale solo retrospective exhibition in Hong Kong in 2015, and became the well-known slogan of Yoshitomo Nara.
Yoshitomo Nara "Impermanent Life"
wood acrylic 169×254cm made in 2008
2 span_ Hong Kong 2021 20,000,000 Estimated price: 15,000,000-p. span2span This simple discourse tells the personal insights and well-known truths about childhood and life; Nara also explained,This expression "is not to say that life is limited, but to emphasize the eternal spirit." Artists who gradually feel the passing of life do not succumb to the mainstream laws of the world. In his eyes, as long as we are intentional, adults can remain innocent forever. This may also reflect a kind of growth. "Strong33strong I no longer paint those cynical children. They are still cold, but they are no longer fleeting. I think the work has moved to a deeper level. It is a matter of opinion whether this change means an improvement in the painting method. Question, but on my level, it alludes to me starting to learn how to communicate with people... draw images that I have never imagined that I can achieve. At the same time, it also indicates that I will never be able to go back to the past, but I think It’s better to make a breakthrough than to stay the same...” 03 The dead The Japanese earthquake in March 2011, the span1pan of Fukushima, Nara, Japan
When he picked up the paintbrush again, he thought about how to get along with the world and how to be a serious adult. "Strong33strong I have matured, and I have begun to regard others more importantly than myself ..."
In the summer of the same year, his father passed away. Death is not a distant matter. He decided to open up his heart and be inspired by life. As a result, the girls in his works became less hostile, and Nara Yoshitomo began to reconcile with the world.
And "Sprout", which will be shot on Guardian Hong Kong, is recording the node of Yoshitomo Nara's important change.There are no narration texts, symbols, and public expressions that have often appeared before, and the contour lines are no longer sharp and straightforward, but soft, and the protagonist shows a kind of wisdom and understanding over the years in meditation and introspection. Dazzling brilliance.
Yoshitomo Nara "Sprout"
acrylic color wood board 135.5×82.5cm made in 2011
-22,000,000_1span2span Hong Kong estimate: 1span2span 2021
The "tree bud" in the painting is not only a symbol of rebirth, but its oval shape is more like Nara’s own words, symbolizing the burning nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The "one body and two sides" of construction.
In addition to painting, the sculpture that helped Yoshitomo Nara get out of his pain was directly made with his own hands. Its size is as big as wrestling with mud, as exhibited inside and outside the LACMA exhibition hall.
Yoshitomo Nara "Forest Girl (LACMA Version)" 2020
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To create sculptures that only show children’s heads. He handcrafted these works out of clay and copied them into bronze materials to become permanent works of art so that they would not be meaningless when disaster strikes. It is in sharp contrast with the almost glass-like sculptures created in the mid to late 1990s.And in the production process, he did not polish them to a smooth surface, but retained the original texture, and even retained the fingerprints left by Yoshitomo Nara on the clay.
At the same time, painting has never stopped. Especially in recent years, Yoshitomo Nara has used more colorful colors, especially in the portrayal of the eyes of the characters. He is very careful, injecting a lot of color and light and shadow details.
Yoshitomo Nara "Ten Stars"
acrylic color wood board 180.5×160cm 2014 made
span_18span2span 28,000,000 Hong Kong dollar estimate: Hong Kong dollar In the 2021 spring auction
, the style of his brushwork has become more refined since then, and each stroke and the use of color all show the artist's thoughtfulness. In the artist’s own words: “In the past, if I had a painting that I wanted to create, I would write it immediately until it was finished. Now, I will spend time painting slowly, step by step, trying to find the best way.”
The emotions that were originally written directly on the face began to internalize and then showed through the eyes. The thick lines in the previous paintings have also been blurred, creating a dreamy and secret atmosphere. These works are reflected in the three exhibitions.
Taipei special exhibition site, Nara Yoshitomo’s new works "A Misty and Wet Day" (2021) and "Moonlight Girl" (2020)
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LACMA exhibition "Yoshitomo Nara" scene,2021
No matter where his works are exhibited, the audience can appreciate the delicate human emotions depicted in his brushes through his unique style. His works have such charm, no matter who they are, they will be quiet in front of his paintings.
The little girl in Yoshitomo Nara's works is still the same, but she has placed more suffering and happiness in the world. As he said: "Strong33strong people who understand me can see something more serious in the painting, not just saying:'Wow, this painting is so cute'."
Yoshitomo Nara "Light Haze Days/Study" 2020
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