Yoshitomo Nara

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The cover of Japanese rock group Shonen Knife's 1998 album Happy Hour, designed by Nara.

Yoshitomo Nara (kanji:奈良美智/hiragana: ならよしとも)(born 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan) is a contemporary Japanese Pop artist. He currently lives and works in Tokyo, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara received his B.F.A. (1985) and an M.F.A. (1987) from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. Between 1988 and 1993, Nara studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, in Dusseldorf, Germany. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984. He is represented in New York City by Marianne Boesky Gallery and in Los Angeles by Blum & Poe. ^[1]

1 Artwork
2 Influences
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Artwork

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..."^[2]

Nara’s own explanation of his work, then, casts us as the aggressors guilty of betraying and attacking childhood innocence. When cast in that light, Nara incriminates himself as well, for his art is above all based upon the perversion of otherwise innocent subjects.

Lauded by art critics and hipsters alike, Nara’s bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world. Nara’s artwork seems to act as an unlikely emotional trigger on people around the world; his zealous fans embrace the stylized images as symbols of eccentric rebellion and, inevitably, as badges of cool.

[edit] Influences

Japanese comic books, or manga, and anime are both clear influences on Nara’s stylized, large-eyed figures. Nara subverts these typically cute 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.

The punk rock music of Nara’s youth has also influenced the artist’s work. Recalling a similar—if more unsettling—image of rebellious, violent youth, Nara’s art embraces the punk ethos. That said, Nara has also cited traditions as varied as Renaissance painting, literature, illustration, and graffiti as further inspiration.

But perhaps most significantly, 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, 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.