underlying allusions to feelings of sadness, rebellion and a sense of isolation in today’s hyper-networked society that have dramatic impact. The artist harnesses these powerful emotions from his own experiences. “I only draw what I know from experience,” Nara says.
Born in 1959, Nara grew up in the small rural city of Hirosaki in northern Japan. With a brother nine years older than him and both parents working, Nara often came home alone to an empty house. His only comfort was the radio. With little to watch on the television at the time, the adolescent started listening to American music on a local radio station set up by the US Army. He initially considered a career in photojournalism but was encouraged by his teachers to become an artist after they recognised he showed clear potential in a life-drawing class. He first attended the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and then moved to Germany to study at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in the late ’80s. Knowing very little German at first, the artist once again felt extremely isolated.It was during those lonely years in a foreign country that Nara developed the visual style
for which he is known today. Trying to express his early feeling of isolation and frustration on paper and canvas, Nara started to focus entirely on his subjects, ridding his
works of all background details. With their oversized heads, wide eyes, small pinpricked noses and simplified limbs, the children of Nara’s works may have a cartoonish rendering, but their knowing expressions and mischievous grins hint they are wise beyond their years.
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| Yoshitomo Nara, Remember Me |
His early portraits depicted children who have lost their innocence, sporting an aggressive expression and often wielding small knives or matches. In Dead Flower (1993), a girl wearing a “F*** You” slogan t-shirt stands armed with a knife over a decapitated flower stem. While some critics have interpreted his paintings as reflecting an inner aggression and deviousness that can be found deep inside even young children,
Nara believes his subjects are not violent, but are instead protecting themselves from an increasingly violent adult world. The artist who attended the opening of Collectors’
Stage, an exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art from private collections back in January, confided that he is planning to retreat to his studio in Tochigi, a couple of hours north of Tokyo. He wishes to concentrate on his work, in particular, preparations for a big solo exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art slated for September 2012. Read the whole story in Prestige Singapore this month.