YOSHITOMO NARA | ALL THE WORLD IS YOURS

Blum & Poe, Los Angeles

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Yoshitomo Nara’s iconic portraits define the essence of childhood and innocence, becoming symbols of Japanese Neo-pop and thereby solidifying the artist as one of the most celebrated contemporary painters of our age. In an immediately recognisable style, Nara creates a dialogue between manga, anime, punk rock, classic children's literature and animation. While these might be obvious references, Nara is also touching – whether in style, subject or motif – upon the history of art in both the East and the West, antiquity and contemporaneity, maturity and naivety.

Nara places his viewer in a cerebral encounter with figures that embody the very essence of childhood by conflating two important archetypes; the rebellious youth and the lonely child. These subjects are highly self-reflective. During his youth in the rural Aomori Prefecture of Northern Japan, Nara was largely isolated and left to his own devices. The solitude and independence he experienced have filtered into his work. As Nara himself explained in an interview "They are all self-portraits in a way. But the emotions that I feel can, of course, be universal."

(James Lindon, “Artworker of the Week #58 Yoshitomo Nara,” Kultureflash, 2 February 2006, online).