Lot 78 | Auction XXXVI

 

 

 

LOT 78

YOSHITOMO NARA

B. Japan, 1960

Cosmic Girl (Eyes Open), 2008

Offset lithographic poster printed in colours on wove, from the edition of 500

72 x 52 cm

Provenance Private Collection, Singapore
Published by Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, at the occasion of the artist’s exhibition. LITERATURE: ‘Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works 1984-2010, Volume I’, Bijutsu Shuppan Sha, Tokyo, Japan, 2011, p.143 (illustrated in colour)

Influenced by elements of popular culture such as anime, manga, Walt Disney cartoons, and punk rock, Yoshitomo Nara creates paintings, sculptures, and drawings of adorable- yet-sinister childlike characters. Painted with simple bold lines, primary colors, and set against empty backgrounds, these small children and animals often share the canvas with text, knives, plants, and cardboard boxes, among other recurring elements. As one of the fathers and central figures of the Japanese neo-Pop movement, Nara’s work expresses the struggle to find an identity fractured by war, rapid modernization, and an omnipresent visual culture. Nara’s sculptures, made primarily from fiberglass, and his drawings on postcards, envelopes, and scraps of paper, further this exploration using the same elegance of line and simple palette as his paintings.