YOSHITOMO NARA - Untitled (Irgendwo Steinebergen als Tragbild), 1997

YOSHITOMO NARA

b.1959

Untitled (Irgendwo Steinebergen als Tragbild), 1997

pencil and coloured pencil on paper

Image size: 30.5 by 22.9 cm.

Framed size: 47.5 by 40 by 3.5 cm.

Unique

Hand-signed by the artist, signed and dated 'なら ’97' at the bottom right; artwork title 'irgendwo steinebergen als tragbild' is inscribed upper part

The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by YOD Gallery

Provenance

Project Angel Food Benefit Auction, Los Angeles, 4 December, 1999
Phillips, New York, 28 February, 2018
YOD Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Private Collection, Asia

Literature

Bijutsu Shuppan Sha, Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works Volume 2 – Works on Paper, Tokyo, Japan, 2011 (illustrated, plate D-1997-145, p. 112).

Artwork Description

Born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist known for his Neo-Pop paintings that illustrate children's stories and comics in innocent, buoyant tones. A great deal of Nara's work consists of flattened, incisive cartoons depicting wide-eyed children and animals, usually with fragments of Japanese, English, or German text incorporated into the compositions. In 2019, Nara set a record when Sotheby's sold Knife Behind Back (2000) for HKD195.7 million. Since 1984, Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions, some of his works have been included in the permanent collections of renowned museums around the world. Nara currently lives and works in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

His works have been housed at the MoMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (LACMA). In July 2017, he held the "for better or worse" retrospective exhibition at The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. He received Artist Award, Nagoya, Japan in 1995 and 63rd Annual Art Encouragement Prize of Fine Arts, Japan in 2013. The Asia Society exhibited his major solo exhibitions "Nobody's Fool" in New York and "Life is Only One" in Hong Kong respectively in 2010 and 2015.

In his works, Yoshitomo Nara’s approach to searching the soul is nostalgic; child-like images, childhood memories and old-time music have been his answer to the question of his true self while he was trying to escape from the status quo. There are profound emotions underlying the eyes or expressed through the actions of the innocent girl portrayed by Nara as a way of self-consolation or self-revelation. In this exhibited original work on paper Untitled (Irgendwo Steinebergen als Tragbild) (1997), where a free-spirited musician is playing her guitar on the piled-up stones amid the mountains and valleys, conveying a sense of fearlessness.

奈良美智

無題 (Irgendwo Steinebergen als Tragbild) (Signed & Framed)

一九九七年作

關於作品

奈良美智 1959 年出生於日本青森縣弘前市，目前在日本栃木縣生活和工作；他是一位「新波普藝術」主義的日本藝術家，以天真活潑的色調描繪兒童故事和漫畫。奈良無數的作品都由睜大著眼睛的兒童或動物等扁平、精闢的漫畫組成，他更常在作品中加入日語、英語或德語的字句。2019 年，蘇富比以 1.957 億港元售出奈良的《背後藏刀》(2000) ，創下奈良的最高紀錄。自1984年以來，奈良已在世界各地舉辦了近40場個展，部分作品更被國際著名博物館永久收藏。

他的作品被紐約現代藝術博物館（MoMA）和洛杉磯郡立藝術館（LACMA）所收藏。 2017年7月，他在豐田市立美術館舉辦回顧展「For Better or Worse」。 1995年，他榮獲日本名古屋藝術家獎，2013年獲得日本第63屆藝術鼓勵獎。在2010年及2015年，亞洲協會分別在紐約和香港展出了他的重要個展「Nobody's Fool」和「無常人生（Life is Only One）」。

在作品中，奈良美智透過懷緬過去的同時尋找一種自我價值和肯定：不管是童稚的臉孔、童年的回憶匣子，或是舊年代的音樂，都一一被他翻出來，目的是在擺脫現實的過程中找到答案。奈良美智把這些複雜的情緒都蘊藏於畫中主角的雙眼，又或是通過模樣單純的小孩做出違反常理的動作，而暗自流露的一種自我表現；透過掩去主角雙眼的光彩，營造一種抽離感，以另類的方法引起共鳴。在這次展出的原作《Untitled (Irgendwo Steinebergen als Tragbild)（無題）》（1997）中，觀眾可見到一位在山谷中無拘無束地演奏著的結他手，縱使她的姿態搖搖欲墜，腳步並不平穩，腳下是歪歪倒倒的石頭堆砌而成的斜塔，但未見眼神畏懼，反而流露一種懾人的自信和威風，不禁引人駐足細看。