The Child-like Era That Took the World by Storm: The Art of Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara is considered as one of the most sought-after artists of the contemporary art market. His works bring about the feeling of loneliness and warmth in their simplistic compositions. The juxtaposition of child-like form and rebelliousness is intriguing in his works. With a poetic, rebellious and gentle personality, Nara loves creating his artwork whilst traveling when his memories of childhood were vivid, thereby incorporating his experience in his works.

“All of my works are reflections of myself. They are conversations with myself”, Yoshitomo Nara.

As a lone artist, Yoshitomo Nara is well-acclaimed among the fashion, literary and pop culture scenes. He believes art is inspired by music while traveling constitutes a means to an end in a stage of life. Travel is a bridge of communication between the artist and the world. It leads him to explore unknowns in life. After two travels in Europe, the second time being a visit to documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987, Nara was faced with the empirical theories at school and the romantic discoveries in travels. Since then, he was determined to end his seven years of education in Nagoya and opted for German education.

Symbolistic Depiction: Children with Huge Heads

Loneliness is prevalent among travelers away from home. This large-scale representative work, Cup Kids, was completed in 1995, a significant year of Nara’s career. That year was the turning point of his artistic career as his works were brought from Germany to SCAI The Bathhouse Gallery in Tokyo for his first solo exhibition “In the Deepest Puddle”. It was also the time when his first gigantic dog sculpture received positive feedback from the art scene. Since then, similar subjects of glass fiber were made and subjects on canvas were transformed into sculptures. In that same year, solo exhibitions at Blum & Poe Gallery in California, USA were held, bringing Nara closer to the international art platform.

Cup Kids is one of the seven components of the work. Children with big years were composed in a big coffee cup. Some with eyes closed and some opened. This shows the artist’s awareness of subconsciousness which is the way the artist used in his journey of self-exploration. To a certain extent, this is equivalent to sleepwalk, as one shut itself from temptations. As the viewer experiences the solitude and tranquilness brought by the message of sleep and being awake, one travels into the dream of Nara, from a clamorous stage into a world of meditation. Children of Nara are reflections of the artist’s emotional state and life experiences. They open the door towards self-meditation in tranquility. In 2000, Cup Kids was once considered as an exhibition highlight in an exhibition held at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. This highlights the significance of the work to the artist.