The Art For One and For All Yoshitomo Na PDF

The Art for One and for
All: Yoshitomo Nara’s

Construction of Emo-
tional Community
TIAN YANG
Columbia University, Class of 2020
ABSTRACT
A child standing in an empty field, full of innocence deep in reverie, is the

image that populate Yoshitomo Nara’s works. His images are opened up
to different interpretations by various communities. This paper talks
about how Nara engages viewers at three different levels. First, Nara’s di-
rect expression of his personal sentiment and memory crystalizing the
sense of collective emotion through his images and serves as an emo-
tional call to his audience. Second the paper shows the influence of popu-
lar culture on Nara’s artistic creations. His incorporation of associative
cues is personalized by viewers based on their individual experience.
Third the paper argues that through the use of medium and structural
composition, Nara captivates viewers in a direct visual dialogue with the
painted figure. Nara addresses viewers in these ways that his work be-
comes a mirror where viewers encounter their inner selves.
Yoshitomo Nara is an internationally prominent artist with an estab-

lished reputation in the global art world. One of his symbolic pieces The
Little Star Dweller sold recently in 2015 at Christie’s New York for
3,413,000 USD. Besides high market value, Nara’s works also enjoy tre-
mendous popularity with a diverse and wide-ranging fan base. The “A to
2
Z” exhibition at Yoshii Brick Brew House in Hirosaki attracted more than

80,000 people to this small town located hours away from Tokyo.1
Nara’s signature style, depicting a large-headed child looking straight at
us, is characterized by its remarkable capacity for bringing about deeply
empathetic interactions with the viewers. This paper explores the artistic
merit behind the popularity of Yoshitomo Nara’s paintings and drawings,
which, I argue, resides in his technique of assembling different kinds of
experience to construct an emotional community with the viewers. This
empathetic quality lies at the core of the artist’s creation and forms the
mutual commitment between Nara and his spectators.
The Pictorial Composition of Nara’s Paintings

The divided composition depicting human figures interacting with
non-human beings (such as animal or angel) under defined background
is common in Nara’s early works.2 Make the Road, Follow the Road (fig.
1a) is horizontally divided: a girl on the left is exchanging threatening ob-
jects, a knife and fire, with a cat on the right. The figures exist in a sub-
stantial space indicated by the horizon line beneath the cat’s paw and the
girl’s feet.3 People on the Cloud (fig. 1b) is another example of this com-
positional device. The figures are shown under bisected background con-
sisting of a blue celestial ream above and a yellow terrestrial realm below.
They are engaged in an exchange within the picture frame, not acknowl-
edging the presence of anyone standing in front of the painting. The simi-
larities shared by his early works merit notice that the figures are shown
in full-length, they occupy existential sphere indicated through the depic-
tion of background, and lack direct interaction with the viewers.
1 Tezuka, Miwako. "Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of Yoshitomo Nara." Yoshi-
tomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p89-109.
2 Kuraya, Mika. " Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An encoun-
ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p119-135.

3 Kuraya, Mika. " Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An encoun-
ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p120.

______________________________________________________
BOWDOIN JOURNAL OF ART, 2019
3
In the 1990s, not long after, we see a change in Nara’s work as repre-
sented by The Girl with Knife in her Hand (fig. 2). Portrayed in thick out-
lines on an ostensibly plain background, a figure with her eyes wide-open
looks diagonally up at the viewer. Such simplified composition marks the
beginning of Nara’s signature style.4 According to the artist, “There was
nothing in these paintings but the image of a child or an animal standing
out against a flat, painted background.”5 It is constructed using only two
layers of picture plane: the figure occupies the foreground and a plane of
sheer color takes up the back. It is purely a space created by paint and
canvas with no connection to tangible reality but can exist anywhere. The
figure’s stance in the undefined background with a strongly formed head
and nuanced facial expression exerts a powerful presence.6
Nara also changed his pictorial mode from narrative depiction to por-
traiture. Portrait is a tradition of documenting human existence in the
form an object. It amplifies the significance of interaction by projecting
energy toward the viewers through the gaze of the painted figure.7 The
viewers now become the subject participating in the reciprocal interac-
tion with the child figure through her direct stare. Especially in the full-
frontal portrait represented by the Black Eyed (fig. 3a) and the White
Night (fig. 3b). Such composition creates an even more intense connec-
tion by demanding viewers to stand right in front of the figure and engage
in a one-to-one dialogue.8
Such transition in the composition can be attributed to the turning
point in Nara’s career when he moved to Germany in 1988. He was fully
4 Kuraya, Mika. " Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An en-
counter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p120.

5 Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star Dweller]” (Tokyo: Rockin’On),
2004: p60.
6 Masue, Kato. "Thoughts on ‘Portraits’ by NARA Yoshitomo: Beyond Japanese Pop Art." Nara
Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p13-15.
8 Kuraya, Mika. "Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An encoun-
ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p119-135.

______________________________________________________
4
aware of this change and discussed the reason behind it in his autobio-
graphical essay as9: “I arrived in a foreign country where I was uncertain
how I would live, and there was a clear change in my paintings…The ‘chil-
dren’ and ‘animals’ are ultimately self-portraits, but I eliminated the de-
scriptive handling of the background, probably because I was in a place
far from Japan, the familiar place where I had been used to living, and
was free of influences that clung to me there. This is a painting that
emerged more from a confrontation with myself.”10
Being in a foreign surrounding prompted Nara to use fragmentary
images of memory to express his inner life.11 The loneliness he felt during
the cold, dark winter in Dusseldorf led Nara to converse with his seven
year-old self in his head. He tried to capture the conversation in paint: a
vulnerable subject standing in the vast emptiness.12 Showing the self as
an image that emerges from self-questioning results in the development
of a new style signified by a single, central figure placed against a mono-
chrome background.13
By forming an abstract simplified body, Nara also highlighted the
head as the most important element. Sometimes, the body is reduced to
only the upper part, or even completely eliminated like In the Pinky
Lake(fig. 4).14 The eyes, which has a special ability to express spiritual
and psychological states, are highlighted with great details. In the White
Night (fig. 3b), as the light hits each eye differently, the left eye seems
9 Shigemi, Takahashi. "Miss Spring Waits for the World." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and
me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p129-131.

10 Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star Dweller]” (Tokyo: Rockin’On),
2004, p.60

12 Chan, Dominique and Nanjo, Fumio. "Once-in-a-life, an Encounter” 一期一會: 奈良美
智 Once in a Life: An encounter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p16-32.

______________________________________________________
5
blurry and doubled, as if her eyes contain different expressions when en-
countering the gaze of different individuals.15
With a simplified figure occupying the center of a non-existential pic-
ture plane, Nara’s paintings do not feature sophisticated narrative ex-
pressions. The visual construction of image contains so few details that,
as according to the artist himself, “they [viewers] insert their own selves
into the images try to see something more in them”16. The straightfor-
ward relationship between the composition of the physical work and the
person viewing it takes the image to the level of mind and thought. View-
ers are encouraged to not only participate in the emotion of the figure de-
picted, but also engage in an introspective process of self-examination.17
The Combination of Popular Cultural Elements

To have his works identified and related by his viewers, Nara absorbs
all sorts of subcultural influences, such as popular music, contemporary
Japanese visual culture, American film characters, and transforms them
into art. As curator Midori Matsui suggested, “Although Nara’s art is very
personal, it arouses emotion and imagination of his contemporaries who
live in the same social and cultural backgrounds as him.”18
Many works from Nara’s early years until the most recent contain di-
rect references to punk music, such as songs by the Ramones19 that shook
Nara to the core. With his passion for music, Nara provides album art to
many bands such as Japanese pop punk band SHONEN KNIFE for the
15 Kuraya, Mika. "Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An en-
counter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p119-135.
16 Chiu, Melissa and Yoshitomo, Nara. "A Conversation with the Artist." Yoshitomo Nara: No-
body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p171-182.

18 Matsui, Midori. "Art for Myself and Others: Yoshitomo Nara’s Popular Imagination." Yoshi-
tomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010). p13-25.
19 The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City in 1974.
They are often cited as the first band to define the punk rock sound. Nara was exposed to many
punk music early in his childhood and he himself has been a huge fan of the Ramones.
______________________________________________________
6
cover of their album happy hour (fig. 5).20 He frequently shows direct
reference to punk music in his works. Numerous drawings are accompa-
nied with fragments of lyrics and rhythms taken from rock and punk
songs.21 Some works are named directly after the bands as exemplified by
“Guitar Wolf.”22 The rebellious attitude embedded in the punk culture is
also shown through a child giving a confrontational sidelong glance ac-
companied by texts saying “Rock’n Roll the Roll” (fig. 6). Visual elements
such as guitar, microphone, and radio are indispensable components of
Nara’s works. The incorporation of the punk music element not only al-
lows his work to resonate with the punk fans, but to share his mental im-
pulses of creation with the audience. As curator Takashi Azumaya de-
scribed: “His materials are his guitar, while images are his melody, his
beat.”23
Nara’s paintings and drawings are often associated with contempo-
rary Japanese visual cultures, particularly manga and anime. Nara took
part in the exhibition Superflat24 organized by Takashi Murakami in
2001.25 Regardless of their seemingly shared characteristics as comments
on contemporary Japanese society, Nara did not embrace this label. In-
stead, according to the artist, he was more influenced by the illustrations
on traditional children’s book, especially those he read when he was lit-
tle.26 Nara draws his inspiration significantly from Takeshi Motai (1908-
20 Tezuka, Miwako. " Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of Yoshitomo Nara." Yoshi-
tomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010). p93.
21 Tezuka, Miwako. " Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of Yoshitomo Nara." Yoshi-
22 Haruko, Tomisawa. " Draw it! Write it! Shout it! On Nara Yoshitomo’s Drawings with
Text." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p95-
97.
23 Tezuka, Miwako. "Music on my mind: the art and phenomenon of Yoshitomo Nara'." Yoshi-
24 Superflat is a term coined by Murakami. It is a theory of postwar Japanese art which refuses
to grow up and accept their violent past, and thus favors a reduction of three-dimensional space
to a flattened surface of lines and color fields.
body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p171-182.

______________________________________________________
7
1956),27 a painter who created illustrations for literary works and chil-
dren’s books during the 1940s. Nara’s drawing is much like Motai’s, he
uses thick lines to delineate the figure against undefined backgrounds
composed of different layers of color (fig. 7a,b). Deeply inspired by Mo-
tai’s drawings as they “found its sources in everyday life and this makes it
sublime,” Nara tried to achieve his unique aesthetic sensibility28 through
similar bold distortion and accumulation of various elements.29 Both Mo-
tai and Nara’s works are pervaded by an otherworldly aura that is
achieved through a mixture of human and animal figures (children
merged with animals) and a condensation of realms of the imaginary and
the real (fairytale scenes situated in a worldly context).30 Another similar-
ity between the two artists shows itself in the evocative quality and psy-
chological depth of their works. The single-child image can be read as au-
tobiographical. But it also shows an internalization of the larger Japanese
visual culture within the artist’s himself.
Further, Nara’s signature paintings of a solitary child with big eyes
show affiliated influences of the Japanese kawaii, translated as cute cul-
ture: they possess infantile features and arouse viewers’ protective loving
instincts. However, Nara pushes the cuteness of his figures beyond the
limits of vulnerability and, by injecting rebelliousness, provides an escape
from the hierarchy of social convention.31 Nara’s child figures convey a
fundamental emotion among anonymous people. They take the form of
27 Takeshi Motai is a highly respected Japanese painter and illustrator, who after travelling on
his own in Europe during the 1930s, started publishing drawings in the literary magazine Shin
Seinei (New Youth) in 1935, and in 1941 turned to children’s books and magazines, which be-
came a major focus of his artistic activity.
28 Yoshitomo Nara, “Sakkayori Kanshu no shiten” [Maintaining the Perspective of the Public,
Rather than the Artist], Fukui Shimbun (October 10, 2001), p11
31 McVeigh, Brian. "Commodifying affection, authority and gender in the everyday objects of Ja-
pan." Journal of Material Culture 1, no. 3 (1996): p291-312. McVeigh considers cuteness as a
communication of power relations that combine weakness, submissiveness with domination
and control.
______________________________________________________
8
cute, but within is a sense of resistance to the established authority.32

Identifying themselves with the insecure child within Nara’s art becomes
a means of emotional salvation for many people in the high-pressured so-
cial world. Such kind of interaction and correlation forms a temporary
emotional community between Nara and his spectators.
Yet, as Nara described the “evilness” of these children, his figures of-
ten deform the cuteness.33 The figures of willful, malevolent children in
Nara’ paintings, find an echo in the “evil child” subgenre of American
horror movies. According to author David Byrne, the big-eyes kids re-
mind him of the 1960 movie Village of the Damned (fig. 8a,b).34 The evil
child has a consistent presence in American film culture since before
Nara was bore. As Nara’s images, film such as this questions the idea of
childhood innocence by emphasizing the anarchic spirit as children take
control over adult’s authority and bring their own world up to the front.35
When Nara defines the category of his artistic imagination as “pop”,
he is perhaps referring to pictorial elements that bring out the collective
feelings of people who inhabit the same time and place as the artists.
Combing elements from the popular culture, Nara’s art is recognized by a
diverse and global audience. However, Nara maintains his artistic expres-
sion as an extension of his own past and present. This intention gives his
images an emotional immediacy that transcends the surface commonali-
ties and compositional codification.36
The Spontaneous Projection of Intimate Emotions
33 Ivy, Marilyn. "The Art of Cute Little Things: Nara Yoshitomo's Parapolitics." Mechademia 5,
no. 1 (2010): p3-29. Scholar Ivy reveals another aspect about the cuteness in Nara’s works. She
argues that Nara’s works are deformations of the cute, the use of cuteness (kawaii) in his works
is to achieve and dramatize uncanny (bukimi).
34 Byrne, David. "Beware the Stare." (2013). Village of the Damned is a horror movie about a
group of highly intelligent children who are able to manipulate people against their wills.
35 Wilson, Michael. "Subject to Change: Yoshitomo Nara and American Culture." Yoshitomo
Nara: Nobody’s Fool (2010): p229-239.

tomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010). p13-25.
______________________________________________________
9
The capacity of Yoshitomo Nara’s work to produce empathetic encoun-

ters and emotional resonance with viewers results from his spontaneous
expression of personal emotions.37 Living up to his motto “never forget
your beginner’s spirit,” Nara reminds himself to work directly from inter-
nal urges.38 As a result, Nara’s artistic creation is grounded in his private
emotional experience.
“My artistic expressions are the accumulation of my personal experi-
ences.”39 The artist’s choice of subject – often a small child full of inno-
cence looking somewhat perplexed - originates from Nara’s attempt of
self-portraiture. Although they bear little resemblance to his physical self
(fig. 9), they reflect his attempt to return to an imagined childhood.40
Nara recalls that his mother named him ‘Michi,’ which often read as a
girl’s name in remembrance of his stillborn sister. So he chooses child, a
figure that is in-between male and female, to represent the ambiguous
masculine and feminine sensibilities in himself. This choice of gender-
neutrality allows a large population to access Nara’s works.
Memories, especially from childhood, construct the unchangeable theme
of youth and loneliness in Nara’s works. Born and raised in Hirosaki, a
remote town in Aomori in northern Japan, Nara spent his childhood with
family in a house that stood in an expansive open field. With busy-work-
ing parents and two much older brothers, Nara was often alone. Spend-
ing time alone, he listened to music, played with neighbors’ dogs, and
doodled on sketchbooks.41 In his evocative work Green Mountain (fig.
10), the head of a wide-eyed child becomes a literal stand-in for the set-
39 Yoshitomo Nara, Taro Amano, Midori Matsui, I Don’t Mind, If You Forget Me (Tokyo:
Tankosha 2001)
40 Nara, Yoshitomo, and Hiroshi Sugito. Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito: Over the Rainbow.
Cantz (2004): p73-77.

______________________________________________________
10
ting of Nara’s childhood home. The child’s hair becomes a cropped ex-
panse of grass, on top sits a house and tree.42 Bearing nostalgic traces
channeled through sadness and fear, Nara’s deceptive cuteness evoke the
immediacy of children’s feeling that the grown-up audience had long for-
gotten but was deeply-preserved in the recess of their minds. The intense
expression of Nara’s images speaks to the viewers, speaks to them a
shared relationship to their past, particularly, to their childhood.43 As
Jane Harris once said “we have all been children… but very few remem-
ber it.”44 This shared reminisce of time in the past empowers Nara’s
paintings and drawings to elicit communal emotions from his audience.
Most of Nara’s works are freehand drawings, which directly reflect
the artist’s subconscious mind and physical condition at the time of pro-
duction.45 Nara starts working on canvases without determining the sub-
ject or form he will paint ahead of time. “I just had this urge to paint and
put my feeling into some kind of expression.”46 Nara starts his acrylic
paintings with no underpainting, he first applied layers of color as a
ground and then brushed on more color over and caused a faint image to
appear. Then the form builds up to become a well-defined image.47 Look-
ing at the photos that show Nara at work in 2012 (fig. 11a,b), viewers see
how the original figure disappears into the ground and, after a succession
of changes, a different image comes into being.48 Through attentive view-
ing and inspecting, viewers can discern the multiple layers of paint buried
42 Chambers, Kristin. Nothing ever happens. Cleveland: Museum of Contemporary Art (2004).
p3-9. This is a catalog of the exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland,
Sept. 12, 2003-Jan. 4, 2004.
43 Ivy, Marilyn. "The Art of Cute Little Things: Nara Yoshitomo's Parapolitics." Mechademia 5,
no. 1 (2010): p16.

44 Chambers, Kristin. Nothing ever happens. Cleveland: Museum of Contemporary Art (2004).
p3-9.
45 Eriko, Kimura. "Behind the Holy Spirit." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto, Ja-
pan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): 53-55.

47 Eriko, Kimura. "Behind the Holy Spirit." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto, Ja-
pan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): 53-55.

48 Kuraya, Mika. "Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An en-
counter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p130.

______________________________________________________
11
beneath the surface. By tracing the movement of his brushwork, viewers

can sense the artist’s mental and physical impulses. Nara first uses rough
strokes of watercolor to delineate the figural contour and paint the back-
ground. Then he changed to more refined tools, such as color pencils and
crayons, to create details which can be seen on the face, especially the
eyes. When viewing the work at length, viewers can detect a combination
of elements, including color, form, composition, and texture. Maintaining
traditional art making method of hand-drawing, Nara provides viewers a
direct path to his state of mind.
Yoshitomo Nara creates artworks as an individual that communicate
directly with his audience.49 Through his artwork, Nara engages viewers
in the same self-reflective process he experienced and, in so doing, con-
structs an emotional link with his audience. His work is “an experimental
place where visitors find an opportunity to see themselves reflected as
through a mirror or a window.”50
body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p179.

______________________________________________________
12
Bibliography
Byrne, David. "Beware the Stare." (2013).
Chambers, Kristin. Nothing ever happens. Cleveland: Museum of

Contemporary Art (2004).
Chan, Dominique and Nanjo, Fumio. "Once-in-a-life, an Encounter” 一期

一會: 奈良美智 Once in a Life: An encounter with Nara. Hong Kong:
Asia Society (2016).
Chiu, Melissa and Yoshitomo, Nara. "A Conversation with the

Artist." Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia
Society (2010).
Eriko, Kimura. "Behind the Holy Spirit." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you
and me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012).
Haruko, Tomisawa. " Draw it! Write it! Shout it! On Nara Yoshitomo’s
Drawings with Text." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto,
Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012).
Ivy, Marilyn. "The Art of Cute Little Things: Nara Yoshitomo's

Parapolitics." Mechademia 5, no. 1 (2010).
Kuraya, Mika. " Where the Wild Children Are." 一期一會: 奈良美智 Once
in a Life: An encounter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016).
Matsui, Midori. "Art for Myself and Others: Yoshitomo Nara’s Popular
Imagination." Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia
Society (2010).
Masue, Kato. "Thoughts on ‘Portraits’ by NARA Yoshitomo: Beyond

Japanese Pop Art." Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me... Kyoto,
Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012).
McVeigh, Brian. "Commodifying affection, authority and gender in the

everyday objects of Japan." Journal of Material Culture 1, no. 3
(1996).
Shigemi, Takahashi. "Miss Spring Waits for the World." Nara Yoshitomo:
a bit like you and me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012).
Tezuka, Miwako. "Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of

Yoshitomo Nara." Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia
Society (2010).
______________________________________________________
13
Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star

Dweller]” (Tokyo: Rockin’On), 2004.
Tezuka, Miwako. " Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of

Yoshitomo Nara." Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool. New York: Asia
Society (2010).
Wilson, Michael. "Subject to Change: Yoshitomo Nara and American

Culture." Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool (2010).
Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star

Dweller]” (Tokyo: Rockin’On), 2004.
Yoshitomo Nara, “Sakkayori Kanshu no shiten” [Maintaining the

Perspective of the Public, Rather than the Artist], Fukui Shimbun
(October 10, 2001).
Yoshitomo Nara, Taro Amano, Midori Matsui, I Don’t Mind, If You

Forget Me (Tokyo: Tankosha 2001).
Yoshitomo Nara, and Hiroshi Sugito. Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito:

Over the Rainbow. Cantz (2004).
______________________________________________________
14
Figures
Figure 1a: Yoshitomo Nara, P-1990-002, Make the Road, Follow the
Road, 1990
Figure 1b: Yoshitomo Nara, P-1989-001, People on the Cloud, 1989
Figure 2: Yoshitomo Nara, P-1991-006, Girl with a Knife in Her Hand,

1991
______________________________________________________
15
Figure 3a: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2014, Black Eye, 2014
Figure 3b: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2006-008, White Night, 2006
Figure 4: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2004-012, In the Pinky Lake, 2004
______________________________________________________
16
Figure 5: Yoshitomo Nara, Album Cover for Shonen Knife, Happy Hour,
1998
Figure 6: Yoshitomo Nara, D-2008-061, Rock ’n Roll The Roll, 2008
Figure 7a: Takeshi Motai, I am a Wild Bird, n.d.
______________________________________________________
17
Figure 7b: Takeshi Motai, Untitled, 1932
Figure 8a: Village of the Damned, 1995 remake of the 1960 movie
Figure 8b: Yoshitomo Nara, Little Ramona, 2001
______________________________________________________
18
Figure 9: Nara’s childhood picture
Figure 10: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2004-001, Green Mountain, 2004
Figure 11a: Nara working in 2012
______________________________________________________
19
Figure 11b: Nara working in 2012
______________________________________________________

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The Art for One and for

All: Yoshitomo Nara’s

A child standing in an empty field, full of innocence deep in reverie, is the

Yoshitomo Nara is an internationally prominent artist with an estab-

Z” exhibition at Yoshii Brick Brew House in Hirosaki attracted more than

The Pictorial Composition of Nara’s Paintings

ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p119-135.

ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p120.

counter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p120.

ter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p119-135.

me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p129-131.

me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p129-131.

me... Kyoto, Japan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): p129-131.

The Combination of Popular Cultural Elements

body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p171-182.

body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p171-182.

cute, but within is a sense of resistance to the established authority.32

The Spontaneous Projection of Intimate Emotions

Nara: Nobody’s Fool (2010): p229-239.

The capacity of Yoshitomo Nara’s work to produce empathetic encoun-

Cantz (2004): p73-77.

no. 1 (2010): p16.

pan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): 53-55.

pan: TAKEI Masakazu (2012): 53-55.

counter with Nara. Hong Kong: Asia Society (2016): p130.

beneath the surface. By tracing the movement of his brushwork, viewers

body's Fool. New York: Asia Society (2010): p179.

Byrne, David. "Beware the Stare." (2013).

Chambers, Kristin. Nothing ever happens. Cleveland: Museum of

Chan, Dominique and Nanjo, Fumio. "Once-in-a-life, an Encounter” 一期

Chiu, Melissa and Yoshitomo, Nara. "A Conversation with the

Ivy, Marilyn. "The Art of Cute Little Things: Nara Yoshitomo's

Masue, Kato. "Thoughts on ‘Portraits’ by NARA Yoshitomo: Beyond

McVeigh, Brian. "Commodifying affection, authority and gender in the

Tezuka, Miwako. "Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of

Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star

Tezuka, Miwako. " Music on My Mind: The Art and Phenomenon of

Wilson, Michael. "Subject to Change: Yoshitomo Nara and American

Yoshitomo Nara, “Chiisana hoshi tsushin [The Little Star

Yoshitomo Nara, “Sakkayori Kanshu no shiten” [Maintaining the

Yoshitomo Nara, Taro Amano, Midori Matsui, I Don’t Mind, If You

Yoshitomo Nara, and Hiroshi Sugito. Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito:

Figure 1b: Yoshitomo Nara, P-1989-001, People on the Cloud, 1989

Figure 2: Yoshitomo Nara, P-1991-006, Girl with a Knife in Her Hand,

Figure 3a: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2014, Black Eye, 2014

Figure 3b: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2006-008, White Night, 2006

Figure 4: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2004-012, In the Pinky Lake, 2004

Figure 6: Yoshitomo Nara, D-2008-061, Rock ’n Roll The Roll, 2008

Figure 7a: Takeshi Motai, I am a Wild Bird, n.d.

Figure 7b: Takeshi Motai, Untitled, 1932

Figure 8b: Yoshitomo Nara, Little Ramona, 2001

Figure 9: Nara’s childhood picture

Figure 10: Yoshitomo Nara, P-2004-001, Green Mountain, 2004

Figure 11a: Nara working in 2012

Figure 11b: Nara working in 2012

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