Milestone of the Public World

“My current works serve not only a tool of expression, but a bridge of emotion associated to the viewers”, Yoshitomo Nara

Loneliness is the crux of figures featured in Nara’s works. Having grown up in the cold Hirosaki, Aomori, Nara once said, “I was very lonely with only apple trees around me… Nature is my own companion, so I will spend time with trees, dogs, pigs… Hence, I have developed a special bond with Nature. A few years later, I realized that this is not a bad thing after all”. With 12 years in Germany away from home, Nara experienced years of self-exile under a language barrier. He would compare the cold and dark Dusseldorf with Aomori. He claims that the years away from Japan encouraged his journey to self-exploration and rediscovery.

In an exhibition named “A to Z” at a former warehouse in Aomori in 2006, Nara chose works from the 1990s that are previously exhibited on international platforms, direct from studio to the exhibition ground of 44 buildings. A total of 13,000 volunteers and the graf team were involved in putting up this exhibition. Such grand production scale was phenomenal as it was considered as a once in a lifetime experience by the artist. Tell Me Why (A to Z) was a spontaneous graffiti at the door of a washroom in a local bar. It was created in 2006, the occasion where Nara revisited his childhood town. As “A to Z” reconnects with the public, the juxtaposition of child-like and rebellious girl associates with a fight against negativity of the world, hence this constitutes to the form of art in his later stage of the career.

Regardless of the media, Nara’s works are unique in their own way and become more refined towards his mature stage. Knife Behind Back fetched NT$770 million (HK$195 million) in 2019, breaking the artist’s record at auction. Berlin Barack, Room 1 sold for NT$470 million (HK$120 million) in 2021, showing the long-lasting fame of the artist around the globe. Being well-loved by collectors, Nara’s works also influence the style of the younger generation of artists. As a rebellious artist towards boundaries of life, Yoshitomo Nara is a child-like artist who lives to document his life experiences into intriguing works of art.