E xecuted in the seminal year 1996, Yoshitomo Nara’s Little Bunny in the Box epitomises the artist’s career-long exploration of innocence, adolescence and universal emotions. With softy downturned eyes, this rosy-cheeked, infantile figure dressed in a bunny suit sits nestled within a lone black box - at once vulnerable, captivating and enchanting, the present work captures the beguiling emotionality of Nara’s enigmatic oeuvre. One of the first canvases to feature Nara’s bunny motif and fresh to auction, Little Bunny in the Box is only the third example from this series on canvas to ever come to auction. As with Nara’s most celebrated works, images of children and animals act as representations of loneliness and solitude, as well as symbols of innocence and its fragility. Throughout his career, Nara has frequently depicted dogs, cats, bunnies and other animals, with the artist remarking that their submissive obedience reminds him of the naivety of children. The nascent figure of the bunny seen in the present work, with its playfully sloping ears, would go on to inspire the artist’s celebrated Sleepless Night painting and sculpture, universally admired by collectors and fans of the artist. As with many of Nara’s most widely treasured compositions, the present work is instantly recognisable, having been featured on a series of posters produced by the artist’s N’s Yard gallery.

Born to a working-class family in the rural area of Hirosaki in Japan, Nara’s youth was spent in relative isolation. Growing up during a period of rapid economic growth, Nara’s parents would often spend long hours away from their home nestled in the Japanese countryside, leaving the young artist to spend much of his childhood alone without companionship. Drawing and making picture books inspired by his pet cat, it was this companion and other neighbourhood animals that Nara took for company, as well as early inspiration. Nara is candid about his isolated early years in rural Japan, explaining; “I was lonely, and music and animals were a comfort. “I could communicate better with animals, without words, than communicating verbally with humans.” (Yoshitomo Nara, quoted in Gareth Harris, ‘Interview: Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’, Financial Times, 10 October 2014, online).

Universally admired for these deeply felt depictions of innocence and angst across generations, Nara’s cast of characters are often described in terms of kawaii and the Japanese Superflat movement that arose from this context of rapid economic growth. However, Nara himself says that his imagery is derived from a more emotive and spiritual base stemming from his Japanese heritage; “[my] imagery that some people misinterpret as being manga—like, not a lot of people would see this spiritual side of my work. The fact is I have never once said that I’ve been influenced by Japanese manga. For a very long time I have created my art from a spiritual point of view. It is filled with religious and philosophical considerations” (Yoshitomo Nara, quoted in Robert Ayers, “‘I Was Really Unthinking Before’: Yoshitomo Nara on His Recent Work and His Show at Pace Gallery in New York”, ArtNews, April 14, 2017). As Kagawa Masanobu, Head curator of Hyōgo Prefectural History Museum, has articulated, Japanese folklore and spirituality is a rich tapestry of mischievous spirits, child-eating monsters, and shape-shifting animals, with Nara’s spectral half-human, half-animal characters recalling the Japanese Yokai. These spirits or creatures, equally beloved and feared in Japan, have played an integral part in Japanese culture for millenia. From the Edo period (1603–1868) scroll paintings such as Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, woodblock prints, and books, to today's video games, movies, and manga, these mischievous supernatural spirits are prevalent in Japanese folkloric culture. As with Nara’s animal characters, these spirits are vessels for storytelling and the reimagining of personal experiences, the influence of which is most directly articulated by Nara through his Miss Forest sculpture series, which the artist has described as inspired by “forest spirits”.

This bunny-child nymph, when placed within the ambiguous vacuity of the present work, is situated within a vast, alienating world, the self of memory and of times past now isolated to a box into which it has been abandoned. Executed in 1996, the present work sees Nara depart from the thick, Neo-Expressionistic outlines of his early work to his most recognizable and mature aesthetic, with his subject delicately rendered and set against a reductive and highly distinctive background. Upon graduating from the Aichi University of the Arts, Nara moved to Germany to study at Düsseldorf’s Staatliche Kunstakademie under the mentorship of A.R. Penck before setting up a studio in Köln. Language barriers and the unfamiliarity of German culture saw Nara facing a period of acute solitude akin to that experienced as a child in Japan. It was during this time that Nara began to explore the depths of his memory and emotions to confront this profound sense of isolation in his art, manifesting the motifs of sullen-children for which he is now renowned. Used variously as the packaging that carries the artist’s lonesome cast of characters, as replacement homes and as the stage for verbal declarations, the box motif within which the lone figure of the present work sits first began to appear in Nara’s work during this time. Whilst living abroad, Nara began to incorporate fragmentary and symbolic images to express the loneliness he experienced, with the box carrying symbolic resonance for the artist’s feelings of displacement and isolation. Whilst the bunny-figure of the present work is reminiscent of puppies and kittens found abandoned in cardboard boxes, this image also calls to mind how small children make dens in small enclosed spaces to create a contained feeling of safety and security from the outside world, a miniaturised house of their own. Nara captures a sense of transitory uncertainty through this image; a vulnerable subject standing in the vast emptiness sitting inside a box, between home and nowhere.

Conveying a universal emotional depth that has resonated with audiences worldwide, Little Bunny in the Box is a sentimental testament to Nara’s unique ability to capture universal emotions. Bearing a cross-generational message, the present work epitomises the ways in which Nara is able to reconcile seemingly innocent imagery with the universal experience of hardship. Nara’s child-like figure in a bunny costume sat within a box are subtle, yet powerful motifs which masterfully establish a profound connection between the viewer and the central figure. In touch with something elemental, these figures possess an extensive breadth of expression that remind us of long-forgotten feelings, of our intuitive wisdom.

《盒中的小兔子》創於 1996 年，體現出奈良美智在創作生涯中對純真、青少年時期與共有情感的恆久探索。宛如嬰兒一樣的畫中主角臉頰紅潤、身穿兔子套裝，坐在黑盒子中，眼神低垂，流露出奈良作品中特有的神秘和動人情感，脆弱又迷人。《盒中的小兔子》是奈良美智首度以兔子為主題的畫布作品，初次登場拍賣會，亦是同一系列在拍賣會上亮相的第三件畫布作品。一如奈良美智的其他著名作品，孩童和動物的形象代表孤單和孤獨，同時也是純真及脆弱的象徵。貓狗和兔子等小動物的溫順令奈良想到孩童的天真無邪，故屢屢成為藝術家的創作題材。本作中兔子的稚嫩形象，加上俏皮的下垂耳朵，其後亦啟發奈良創作著名的《不眠之夜》畫作和雕塑，獲藏家和支持者一致讚賞。本作極富奈良的獨特風格，曾出現在 N’s Yard 出版的一系列海報上。

奈良美智出生在日本弘前鄉下的一個工人階級家庭，青少年時代是在相對孤立的環境中長大。當時日本經濟快速增長，奈良的父母長期在外謀生，導致奈良在沒有陪伴的情況下獨自度過童年大部分時光。與寵物貓玩耍令他得以排遣寂寞，他更以小貓為靈感，繪畫和製作圖書；小貓和其他鄰居的動物成為奈良的玩伴和早期的創作靈感。奈良美智坦率講述他早年在日本鄉下與世隔絕的經歷，解釋道：「我很孤獨，音樂和動物一直是我的慰藉。比起人與人的交流，我更能好好的與動物交流，毋用片言隻語。」（奈良美智，引自加雷思·哈里斯，〈訪談：日本藝術家奈良美智〉，《金融時報》，2014 年 10 月 10 日，網上）

奈良美智筆下人物所流露出的純真和焦慮，贏得跨世代觀眾的讚賞和共鳴，常被視為是「卡哇伊」文化和在經濟快速增長下興起的超扁平運動的代表。不過，藝術家本人表示他的意象源於日本傳統，更具情感和精神基礎：「我的意象被部分人誤解為漫畫，沒有多少人看到我作品的精神層面。事實上，我從未說過我受日本漫畫影響。很長的一段時間以來，我都是從精神的角度創作，反思宗教和哲學。」（奈良美智，引自羅伯特·艾爾斯，〈「我之前真的沒有思考過」：奈良美智談他的近期作品與在紐約佩斯畫廊的展覽〉，《藝術新聞》，2017 年4 月14 日）。正如兵庫縣立歷史博物館館長香川雅信所說，日本的民間傳說與靈性文化是一幅豐富的畫卷，充滿淘氣的鬼怪、吞噬孩童的怪物和會變身的動物，而奈良筆下幽魅的半人獸形象亦令人不免想到日本妖怪。這些鬼怪或生物在日本令人既敬又畏，幾千年來一直是日本文化中不可或缺的一環。從江戶時代（1603 至 1868 年）月岡芳年等畫師筆下的捲軸畫、浮世繪木版畫和各類文獻典籍，到今天的電子遊戲、電影和漫畫，這些淘氣的超自然鬼怪一直在日本民俗文化流行。就像奈良美智筆下的動物角色一樣，這些鬼怪成為敘事的媒介，讓奈良得以重新詮釋個人經歷。他亦直言自己受「森林精靈」啟發，進而創作出「森子」雕塑系列，足見日本傳統文化對奈良藝術實踐的深遠影響。

兔子置在模糊虛空的場域，彷如身處一個廣闊而疏離的世界，記憶中和過去的自我如今被孤立在被遺棄的盒子中。本作創於 1996 年，標誌著奈良告別早期作品粗重的新表現主義線條，邁向他最為人廣知和成熟的美學：主體形象以細膩手法呈現，背景以極簡而獨特的處理手法襯托。從愛知縣立藝術大學畢業後，奈良美智離鄉負笈德國，在杜塞道夫藝術學院留學，師承 A.R.彭克，其後在科隆設立工作室。由於語言不通和不諳德國文化，奈良再次陷入與童年一樣的孤獨時光。正正在這段時間，藝術家開始探索他的記憶和情感深處，在藝術中處理這種深刻的疏離感，發展出現今為人熟知的悶悶不樂孩童形象。盒子在這個時期首次出現，既是承載藝術家筆下孤獨角色的容器，也化身成替代家居的庇護所，更充當言說表達的舞台，如同本作中孤獨身影所身處的盒子一樣。在異鄉生活期間，奈良開始以碎片化和象徵式的圖像來表達他所體驗的孤獨，而盒子象徵藝術家流離失所和孤立無援的感受。雖然本作的兔子形象讓人想起被遺棄在紙箱中的小貓小狗，但這個意象同樣讓人想到孩童在狹小的封閉空間中搭建出屬於自己的小天地，創造出一種與外界隔絕的安全感。奈良美智藉此意象捕捉到一瞬的不確定感；脆弱的主角坐在盒中，漂浮於浩瀚的虛空，徘徊在有家與無處可歸之間。

《盒中的小兔子》的共有深刻情感引起全球觀眾的共鳴，完美詮釋奈良美智在捕捉共有情感的獨特天賦。本作傳達跨越世代的信息，將看似天真的意象與共有的苦難經歷巧妙融合。身穿兔子服裝的主角坐在盒子中，如同孩童般的形象簡單卻有力，在觀眾和主角間建立起深刻的情感聯繫。這些形象觸及人類共通的情感底層，以豐富的表達喚醒觀者塵封已久的感受和直覺智慧。