MR.

Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo
Acquired from the above by the present owner

The work is in good condition, with scattered pinholes on the panel, and creases and folds to some receipts, which is inherent to the artist's process. There is a small speck of paint-loss to the extreme lower left corner of the right panel.
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MR.'s universe is "Otaku," a word which describes the obsessive passion one can feel for anime and manga. When he started creating his own works after several years of being Murakami's assistant, his primary focus was to turn manga and anime into art.

Although they can appear to be simple, MR.'s works are complex and have evolved over time. From single figures on white backgrounds to the more complex compositions with meticulously painted settings. Sometimes set against detailed landscapes, in the case of the present painting, What Should I Do?/Bamboo Ring, the receipts were as if classifies pinned on the public board in a college hallway. This could lead to the interpretation that the subjects painted on these receipts are nothing more than objects, or, as all of them are representations of teenagers, sexual objects. This was, at first, one of the implications of the Otaku universe. In fact, MR.'s motif of depicting young girls and teenagers is part of what critics have called his "lolicon" aspect. "Lolicon," a concept of the Japanese animation subculture, refers to someone having a preference for fictional and idealized young girls. This love, however, is never meant to happen outside the painted fantasies of the artist.

"Lolicon" was popularized in the late 1970s and early 1980s by manga creator Hideo Azuma. His Sci-fi creations were filled with young feminine creatures aimed at a young male audience. This subculture is often associated in Japan today with the moe concept, a homonym for ‘burning” or “budding”, which can be understood as an attachment to cute adolescent girls.  The artist explains the subtle distinction in an interview, “From an "otaku" perspective, young girls are seen as sexual objects, but more recently there is the idea of moe… there is a platonic idea behind it, a love for the character or icon. In the old days, I felt that these young girls were imbued by otaku culture with sexuality… Now, however, I feel that they have grown into something more pure and that they are used to express warmer, more protective thoughts – for instance moe.” (An interview by Melissa Chiu, “I eat curry one day and fish another,” in MR., Galerie Perrotin and Kaikai Kiki, Paris & Tokyo, 2011, p.9) In the present lot, MR.'s teenagers are simple and pretty, characteristics of the artist’s early works. They stand on the page or the canvas, posing, as if they were only happy to be there. Rather than being sexual objects, MR.'s creatures are projections of his fantasies and he “is really only trying to see how far his characters can be 'iconified' as a "similitude" of his love." (“The Ethics and creativity of Moe”, in op. cit., p. 118)

These small paintings on receipts are a reminder of the artist’s method to always do a small drawing as preparation for work. The teenagers are portrayed in casual poses and their faces display perpetual smiles of happiness and surprise. The artist describes his works as attempts to convey both brightness and sadness. The latter is similar to loneliness, and one cannot think about loneliness better than in the context of Lolicon, who is forever trapped in the impossibility of his love. By multiplying the small portraits and pinning them on a wall, MR. externalizes his obsession and fills his world with the infinite faces of the object of his affection. 

In regard to public perception of these works, the artist once said, "I think that a lot of collectors who purchase my works are buying what they see in front of them. Of course, my works very obviously feature concepts like 'moe' and 'kawaii' but the focus tends to be (naturally) on the quality of the image, its surface impact, the amount of fine detail, the technique, whether or not I hand-painted everything, and the texture of the paint with time." ( Mr. Art Book Ikiteiku Moe Michi Yukaba, 2011, Kaikai Kiki ed., p.7)

The present work is exemplary of the original way the artist shows his attention to craftsmanship and obsession for detail whether in the process-making or subject of the work; In this case, the obsession itself.