Yoshitomo Nara

Japanese artist

Yoshitomo Nara (奈良 美智) is a Japanese artist. He lives and works in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984. His art work has been housed at the MoMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). His most well known and repeated subjects are "big headed girls" with piercing eyes, who one Nara scholar describes as having "childlike expressions [that] resonate with adult emotions, [their] embodiment of kawaii (cuteness) carries a dark humor, and any explicit cultural references are intertwined with personal memories."

Nara grew up in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, about 300 miles north of where he lives now in Tochigi Prefecture. He would later provide cover art for bands including Shonen Knife, R. E. M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers.

"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 " Lauded by art critics, Nara's bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world. In June, 2005, Nara's artwork was featured in the album titled "Suspended Animation" by experimental band Fantômas. Other commercial products (including videos, books, magazines, catalogues and monographs) have been dedicated to Nara's work. Recently, a two volume catalogue raisonné of all his sculptures, paintings, and drawings was completed. In 2010, the Asia Society showed Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool the first major New York exhibition of his work. Other major retrospectives include: "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me", which toured Japan between 2001 and 2002; and "Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens," which traveled the United States from 2003 to 2005. Can’t Wait ‘til the Night Comes was sold for HK$92.9m at the same year. In April 2021, the painting Frog Girl was sold in Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring auction for US$12.5 million.

Though Nara claims to have never said that he was influenced by manga, Nara subverts these 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. 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, Warner Bros and 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.

Nara exhibited work in New York at the Pace Gallery in May–April 2017. It was his first exhibition in New York since 2013. Entitled Thinker, the pieces exhibited represent a shift towards a more meditative body of work. Of this shift, Nara said, "In the past I would have an image that I wanted to create, and I would just do it. I would just get it finished. Now I take my time and work slowly and build up all these layers to find the best way. Just like you cook so that you know it’s going to be the most delicious, you find a way to make your art the best it can be." In July 2017, The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art held a career retrospective of the artist's work, called for better or worse. A retrospective of his work, including 100 pieces from 36 years, is being exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2020.

Koon, Yeewan (2020). Yoshitomo Nara. Phaidon. Koplos, Janet. "Making Space for Misfits: Yoshitomo Nara." Sculpture. Volume 30, Number 3. April 2011. p. 42 7. A to Z. Tokyo: Foil, 2007. .