Yoshïtomo Nara - Japanese painter

[.francesca]

suffice to say i'm very surprised we don't have a thread on him!

one of my top favorite contemporary artists, nara works in the somewhat trendy genre of cartoon-y japanese comic style, with a lot of emphasis on children and it's sort of dark. what i really like about his work is the simple line structure, muted colors, the stories they tell and their 'tongue-in-cheek' sense of humor.

look how cute he is!

www.the-artists.org

www.bunnybass.com

www.sjmusart.org

www.postershop.com

www.archeus.co.uk

an article here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/07/30/nara.DTL

[FONT=geneva,arial,sans-serif]

A little girl pounds her fists on the table in a tantrum rage under a caption bubble that reads, "F**!" Another young lady, carved from a thick log, holds a ball of flame. The expression on her full face is something between the self-satisfied smirk of a straight-A student in science class and the foolhardy glare of a revolutionary. You'd best watch your back.

[/FONT]

[FONT=geneva,arial,sans-serif]In a little drawing, yet another sweet young thing, wearing a green dress, stands before an impressive stadium-size bank of Marshall amps, her face bearing an impassive almost frown. Either she's done something unladylike, or is about to. It's difficult to know for sure -- her serious ambivalence is a major part of her charm.

[/FONT] [FONT=geneva,arial,sans-serif]Welcome to Nara Land.[/FONT]

 

[.francesca]

here is the wikipedia entry on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo_Nara

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.

www.artnet.com

 

[susie_bubble]

^I love his work too francesca!

I have his postcards stuck all over my wall. So cute and fiendish all at the same time.

 

[.francesca]

i have a lot of his postcards too (i have a lot of postcards, period ) and i agree - totally cute and fiendish. i also own prints of the two i posted from postershop - the girl with the flag and the dog reading. they're so beautiful - i wish i could afford some of his other stuff.

 

[.francesca]

i have this set, which is really awesome.

from ebay

 

[fab_fifties_fille]

I can't believe there wasn't a thread on him...he's definitely been discussed alot here, he's very of the moment I'd say...fantastic, I love his stuff...I love that little bandaged-up one on the table!

Thanks for posting .f!

Edit: I also love the way he draws on lined paper, it makes it look much more raw, and less thought out...

 

[susie_bubble]

^^That's the set I have too!

Yeah, the lined paper thing does give the illustrations a raw quality. Daisy de Villeneuve does the same thing too. Except her illustrations aren't half as cute!

 

[gius]

oh i always thought this artist was a girl! they are very charming pictures. i wonder what kind of medium he uses for these two pictures??? they're nice, like a little dirty like children's drawings.

 

[Estella*]

probably we didn't yet have a thread on him because everybody just assumed everybody else liked him

thank you .francesca!

i agree with what has been said so far but my favourite nara pieces are those where he collaborated with painter/friend hiroshi sugito. sugito's dreamlike landscapes build the perfect surrounding for nara's children

scanned by me from 'over the rainbow' published by hatje cantz

one of my two favourite paintings ever

raindrops

and deeper than a puddle

 

[Estella*]

oh i always thought this artist was a girl! they are very charming pictures. i wonder what kind of medium he uses for these two pictures??? they're nice, like a little dirty like children's drawings.

sorry i just edited the pictures out since quoting pictures is not allowed but since you were referring to two in particular it was a bit hasty...

you meant #3 and #4 in francesca's first post, no?

it might even be pencil and paper ... a lot of his drawings are quite simple...

 

[gius]

you meant #3 and #4 in francesca's first post, no?
it might even be pencil and paper ... a lot of his drawings are quite simple...

oh oups

yes, excluding the photo of yoshitomo in francesca's post, it's #3 #4.
they are... the girl with the flag, and the dog at the desk.

 

[.francesca]

estella, i agree with you - i couldn't find any of those, i don't have the book, but i'm familiar with the images, and yes, they are really, really beautiful thank you for scanning those and if you wanted to scan more, i wouldn't mind

i don't have those 2 images in front of me, but i believe they are colored pencil - they have the scratchy, uneven lines of a colored pencil.

i have this shirt:

from sweatyfrog.com

there are a lot of nara images here:

*edit: the images aren't showing up anymore *

coffz.tripod.com

 

[Avant Garde]

They have a few items from him on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811848523/sr=1-1/qid=1137372909/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-0248280-1779239?%5Fencoding=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3933096596/sr=1-2/qid=1137372909/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0248280-1779239?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
At first sight, the childlike figures for which Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is now famous seem altogether cute and appealing. On closer examination his creations are robust, angry, and vulnerable creatures, standing up defiantly to the world of adults--self-confident, stubborn, and sometimes violent. Nara's work is influenced by Japanese comic books but he is unique in the contemporary art scene for tapping into horror through the medium of the innocent child--this is particularly poignant in Japan's controlled society of rigid language and social structures, especially considering recent shockingly violent crimes in Japan involving children as the aggressors. Nara's work instills the viewer with a juxtaposition of the innocence of children and the evil nature of humanity, or the fall from grace. Like Kurt Cobain's music, Nara's Pop art, too, aims to lend expression to his generation's concerns, encouraging it to meet the constraints of high achievement. Self-determination, individuality, and freedom are themes that infuse Nara's voice that is clearly heard in Japan and America, where the dividing line between "low" and "high" culture is less stringently drawn than in Europe. In addition to Nara's signature paintings, sculptures, and drawings; (poems and diary entries by the artist); this 204-page book includes texts by the art critic Stephan Trescher and the Japanese cult author Banana Yoshimoto. Essays by Stephan Trescher and Banana Yoshimoto.

more products here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/002-0248280-1779239?search-alias=aps&keywords=Yoshitomo%20Nara

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/index.php?main_page=pubs_advanced_search_result&store=books&store_type=books&search_in_description=0&keyword=Yoshitomo+Nara&x=11&y=8


Images from amazon and chronicle books

 

[Hebden]

Thanks for starting this thread! I love his work...I've got a few books and this ashtray...

 

[Hebden]

The Japanese Experience Inevitable - Ursula Bickle Foundation

"An introduction to Yoshitomo Nara is not really necessary since his work and his person have cult status. In japan he is as popular as a pop star and his telephone number and address are well-kept secrets. "I don't mind if you forget me" has been the laconically sentimental title of his first retrospective on tour in 2001-2002 that had in Yokohana around 300,000 (mostly young) visitors within a few weeks. Nara's oeuvre is tremendously autonomous, serene and, at the same time, explosive and cannot be celebrated as contemporary art, but defines itself as a specific lifestyle blazoned on in-between areas and products (t-shirts, CD covers, fanzines). Behind his fetching, distorted figures lurks defiance, rebellion and lonliness as basic principles, revealing an attitude to life that thrives on the myths of rock and punk.

Shaped by a rural and happy childhood and the contrasting metropolises of Tokyo, Cologne and Los Angeles where he spent most of his life, he likewise shuttles in his work between binary poles. His paintings, drawings, sculptures and poems - less the rarely exhibited photos - stand under the strangely rapt tension between serenity, melancholy, sadness and angst, aggressiveness and despair. His trademarks are children and dogs; behind their seeming innocence they reveal a metaphorical conflict. Isolated and lonely, at times shy, they seem well brought up, somehow appealing and project our relationship to our relationship to our and their own biography within their large eyes. Or they penetrate our unconscious and sleepwalk there, where the everyday horror appears more real than virtual. His cuddly, endearing figures can then become evil, menacing, and play on the subversive energy of baby cuteness (Kindchenschema) that in the nowhere of Neverland gives off a constant note of restlessness and irritation.

Strongly influenced by rock and punk, but also by poetry and the orderly structure of Japanese scoiety, Nara's works seem like a retrogressive look at a dubiously happy childhood. The rebellious vein of his protagonists, against empty backgrounds, concerns their search for identity, including traumatic experiences of lonely hours. The reality and illusion of childhood and innocence, of lightheartedness, sheltered happiness, as well as of insecurity, inner conflict and a search for a homeland and oneself are themes that are interwoven in his enchanting works. It may be that these feelings are autobiographically motivated (Nara lived in Germany for 12 years), but they have been nourished by the world of adults, translated into fairy tales that avoid any simple interpretation and confront us with their romantic wistfulness. The presentation of high and low, the path between art and subculture, the aversion to the art business and a penchant for pop-cultural territories - like his regular authorship of record reviews - are the foundation of Yoshitomo Nara's cult status on the border to the megapolis Tokyo, where since the year 2002 he has again found a home."

 

[cakesniffer]

I think it's really funny that he's a dude. ^^ I've got the 'Oh my god I miss you!' cards on my wall. Love them!

 

[two months off]

oh i always thought this artist was a girl!

Hah, so did I! It's nice to put a face to his work though. Thanks for posting, .francesca!

 

[.francesca]

no problem tmo that's so funny that you thought it was a girl - as soon as i saw the work, i knew it was a man...not sure why though.

 

[twilight fairy]

 

[runner]

there is a very famous festival called Nebuta in Japan where various floats called dashi are brought out.
apparently the man is working on his dashi and will show it there next month.


these are the typical Nebuta dashi's btw
shuffle.s65.xrea.com


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