Lot  064 Ravenel Autumn Auction 2020

Ravenel Autumn Auction 2020

Untitled (Ich möchte gerne Kulturvampire sein!)

Yoshitomo NARA (Japanese, 1959)

2007

Colored pencile and acrylic on cardboard

65 x 48 cm

Estimate

TWD 5,000,000-8,000,000

HKD 1,330,000-2,128,000

USD 171,400-274,200

CNY 1,176,000-1,882,000

Sold Price

TWD 8,160,000

HKD 2,217,391

USD 286,316

CNY 1,867,277


Signature

Signed lower center Yoshitomo Nara, dated 07 and inscribed Köln


PROVENANCE:
Johnen Galerie, Berlin


ILLUSTRATED:
Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works 2, Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco, 2011, color illustrated, no. D-2007-059, p. 264

+ OVERVIEW

The little girls portrayed by Yoshitomo Nara may appear in multiple scenes, a solitary void, or in a room hung with scads of paintings. He gathers his manuscripts in a small room, one that bears a striking resemblance to the room he lived in during college - with close affinities not only in size, but even in the way the paintings are nailed to the walls. In his exhibitions worldwide, there is always a small room like this sitting at the center of the hall. This has gradually become the trademark of his exhibitions. Created from a personal perspective, the rebellious and lonesome young figures in his paintings appear to be a self-projection of Yoshitomo Nara. Their uncompromising attitude toward the outside world exhibits a sense of frustration and helplessness in their efforts to resist. Evocative of the Japanese culture of cuteness, their adorable appearances capture the attention and interest of viewers.

Yoshitomo Nara was born in Hirosaki, the west side of Aomori Prefecture, Japan. “On the morning of December 5, 1959, I descended upon this planet.” Here he spent his “slow-paced and down-to-earth” childhood and adolescence. Surrounded by apple trees in his childhood years, he constantly had conversations with nature. Through this, he was actually conversing with himself. The seeds of loneliness began to sprout during his days in this secluded town.

After his freshman year in college, Yoshitomo Nara - an unruly, selfwilled young man - used the tuition fees meant for his sophomore year on his trip to Europe. From Paris Airport, he toured across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Having spent all his money on this solo trip in Europe, Yoshitomo Nara was unable to continue his studies at Musashino University. Therefore, he took the college entrance exams and became a freshman at Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts, a public school with relatively lower tuition fees.

In 1983, at the age of 24, Yoshitomo Nara went on another budget trip to Europe. In May 1988, he set off from Nagoya Station for Germany to begin formal study at Düsseldorf Art Academy - the same school numerous master artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, and Nam June Paik, attended. Over twelve years in Germany, Yoshitomo Nara met quite a few interesting people. Yet, he still describes those days as a “lonely” period.

The little girls portrayed by Yoshitomo Nara during his days in Germany always take on a slightly hostile expression. Ich möchte gerne Kulturvampire sein! (I Want to Be a Culture Vampire) was created in Cologne in 2007. As if returning to his childhood small-town life, the figures Nara portrayed during this period always stand against a pure color backdrop of serenity, vigilantly observing everything around them. By then, “introspection” had become an increasingly marked feature of his paintings. Characterized by an exaggerated head and a puny body, the child in a pale blue dress stares into the front with a pair of angry eyes that express doubt and mistrust. With hurried steps, the little girl confronts the viewers with piercing eyes. The two leaves of the two-leaf clover in her hand represent “faith” and “hope”, respectively. Above her head hovers the German phrase, “Ich möchte gerne Kulturvampire sein! (I want to be a culture vampire),” as a sarcastic, selfdeprecating expression of the helplessness he felt when encountering language barriers in a foreign land. Yoshitomo Nara creates a hybrid of contradictions - a little girl that has both an innocent appearance and a rebellious personality. It was during this period that the juxtaposition of innocence and rebellion over a cultural gap took shape, which gave birth to his iconic little girl image. This lot communicates the idiosyncratic temperament of Yoshitomo Nara.

From the Düsseldorf period onward, Yoshitomo Nara gradually matured in his artistic style. He received a succession of invitations to exhibit his creations at galleries in Amsterdam and Cologne. After graduating from Düsseldorf Art Academy, he moved to his studio in Cologne. There, Yoshitomo Nara began to take his “artist” identity seriously. By showcasing his artworks around the world, he has steadily established himself on the global stage of art. Defiance, introspection, and innocence – the qualities Yoshitomo Nara deems indispensable for modern people, unreservedly manifest themselves in his paintings.


Related Info

Select: Modern & Contemporary Art

Ravenel Autumn Auction 2020

Saturday, December 5, 2020, 3:30pm