Japan
See also : Buddhism Early Buddhist sculpture Furniture Art by women ca 1960 Current art Current art by women
Chronology : 1640-1649 1949 1959 1997 1998 2000-2009 2000
Chronology : 1640-1649 1949 1959 1997 1998 2000-2009 2000
1193 A Kamakura Buddha
2008 SOLD for $ 14.4M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
In 1185 CE the Kamakura period succeeds the Heian period. The aristocracy has lost power and the Buddhist figuration is transformed, for a more monumental and popular vision.
The top artists of this transition are Kokei and his son Unkei, who are from Nara and work for the main Japanese temples. Unkei began his career before 1176 as an apprentice to his father, whom he succeeded around 1195 as the schoolhead of the Kei family.
Their figures are made of wood, assembling many elementary parts with joinery techniques. Unkei departs from the Buddhist canon by making male figures of great expressive power. He also innovates by inserting crystals in the eyes. His statuettes are hollow to contain relics, often including a wooden plaque that identifies the artist and the date.
In 2000, in an antique shop somewhere in the Japanese countryside, a collector is astonished by a wooden figure 66 cm high, which he manages to buy. The piece does not have the weight of solid wood. It is gold lacquered with pigment conservation, and the jewelry ornaments are in hammered metal. It was probably taken out of a temple during the promotion of Shinto in the Meiji period.
Three years later, the curator of sculptures at the National Museum of Tokyo confirms that this piece perfectly matches Unkei's style. Because of its fairly large size, experts consider that it can correspond to a work by Unkei made in 1193 for a funeral memorial.
The figure was perfectly sealed and has not been disassembled. By X-ray inspection, three relics are identified in its cavity : the plaque, which could not be read, a five-stage crystal pagoda symbolizing the material elements, and a crystal ball.
It matches the iconography of Dainichi Nyorai who can be indifferently considered as a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. The gesture of two closed fists one above the other and joined by the index finger of the lower hand symbolizes the knowledge.
This Japanese Buddha was sold for $ 14.4M including premium by Christie's on March 18, 2008, lot 200.
The top artists of this transition are Kokei and his son Unkei, who are from Nara and work for the main Japanese temples. Unkei began his career before 1176 as an apprentice to his father, whom he succeeded around 1195 as the schoolhead of the Kei family.
Their figures are made of wood, assembling many elementary parts with joinery techniques. Unkei departs from the Buddhist canon by making male figures of great expressive power. He also innovates by inserting crystals in the eyes. His statuettes are hollow to contain relics, often including a wooden plaque that identifies the artist and the date.
In 2000, in an antique shop somewhere in the Japanese countryside, a collector is astonished by a wooden figure 66 cm high, which he manages to buy. The piece does not have the weight of solid wood. It is gold lacquered with pigment conservation, and the jewelry ornaments are in hammered metal. It was probably taken out of a temple during the promotion of Shinto in the Meiji period.
Three years later, the curator of sculptures at the National Museum of Tokyo confirms that this piece perfectly matches Unkei's style. Because of its fairly large size, experts consider that it can correspond to a work by Unkei made in 1193 for a funeral memorial.
The figure was perfectly sealed and has not been disassembled. By X-ray inspection, three relics are identified in its cavity : the plaque, which could not be read, a five-stage crystal pagoda symbolizing the material elements, and a crystal ball.
It matches the iconography of Dainichi Nyorai who can be indifferently considered as a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. The gesture of two closed fists one above the other and joined by the index finger of the lower hand symbolizes the knowledge.
This Japanese Buddha was sold for $ 14.4M including premium by Christie's on March 18, 2008, lot 200.
1643 Mazarin's Treasure
2013 SOLD 7.3 M€ including premium
Around 1640 in Kyoto, the art of lacquer reached a fabulous refinement. The Dutch East India Company managed to export some pieces of very high quality.
At that time in Europe, the commode has not been invented, and the usual saving furniture is the coffre, without drawers. A wonderful chest kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum is part of a group of four shipped to Batavia on 1 October 1643. Its attested belonging to the Mazarin - La Meilleraye family suggests that it was acquired by the cardinal-minister. It is identified as the Mazarin chest.
The very detailed website of the museum devotes a full page to another chest from the same series, lamenting that its fate is unknown since 1941. Black and white photos show a panel and the top..
The lost piece was just found in a family that had no idea of its importance. It is listed in the annual prestige sale at the château de Cheverny by Rouillac on June 9. The auction house considers that it had been acquired circa 1658 in Amsterdam by an agent of Mazarin. The cardinal, a great lover of art, was considered as the richest man in the world.
This is a large piece, 64 x 145 x 73 cm. The total surface of black and gold lacquer is extraordinary: nearly 9 square meters including the inside of the lid. Despite its decades of incognito survival, it is in very good condition.
Above all, it represents by itself a synthesis of the decorative arts of Japan, with all the technical applications of lacquer including inlays of mother of pearl. The many figures of people, animals and palaces are exquisite.
The position of these chests in the history of furniture is great. It was to wait for more than half a century to get the fashion of commodes and desks decorated with lacquered panels.
POST SALE COMMENT
Purchased for the benefit of the Rijksmuseum, the chest will come back to Amsterdam three and a half centuries after being bought in this city by an agent of Mazarin. Its price, € 7.3 million including premium, confirms that Rouillac made a perfect analysis by considering it as a masterpiece.
At that time in Europe, the commode has not been invented, and the usual saving furniture is the coffre, without drawers. A wonderful chest kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum is part of a group of four shipped to Batavia on 1 October 1643. Its attested belonging to the Mazarin - La Meilleraye family suggests that it was acquired by the cardinal-minister. It is identified as the Mazarin chest.
The very detailed website of the museum devotes a full page to another chest from the same series, lamenting that its fate is unknown since 1941. Black and white photos show a panel and the top..
The lost piece was just found in a family that had no idea of its importance. It is listed in the annual prestige sale at the château de Cheverny by Rouillac on June 9. The auction house considers that it had been acquired circa 1658 in Amsterdam by an agent of Mazarin. The cardinal, a great lover of art, was considered as the richest man in the world.
This is a large piece, 64 x 145 x 73 cm. The total surface of black and gold lacquer is extraordinary: nearly 9 square meters including the inside of the lid. Despite its decades of incognito survival, it is in very good condition.
Above all, it represents by itself a synthesis of the decorative arts of Japan, with all the technical applications of lacquer including inlays of mother of pearl. The many figures of people, animals and palaces are exquisite.
The position of these chests in the history of furniture is great. It was to wait for more than half a century to get the fashion of commodes and desks decorated with lacquered panels.
POST SALE COMMENT
Purchased for the benefit of the Rijksmuseum, the chest will come back to Amsterdam three and a half centuries after being bought in this city by an agent of Mazarin. Its price, € 7.3 million including premium, confirms that Rouillac made a perfect analysis by considering it as a masterpiece.
1949 La Fête d'Anniversaire by Foujita
2018 SOLD for £ 7.1M including premium by Bonhams
narrated in 2020
Foujita is in Montparnasse during the Roaring Twenties. He likes social life, white women, champagne. Returning to Japan in the 1930s, he collaborates successively with the imperial army and with the American occupier. His situation is becoming untenable. In 1949 General MacArthur manages to get him out of Japan.
Foujita stays in New York for a few months. He understands that he was wrong and that art should not glorify war but express peace and beauty. He enthusiastically prepares an exhibition on new themes.
The figuration remains done with a thin line in the Japanese style. The staging is inspired by his great knowledge of Western art. The works include interwoven symbols beside personal reminiscences.
For example, Au Café, oil on canvas kept at the Centre Pompidou, follows L'Absinthe by Degas, les Folies Bergères by Manet and le Lapin Agile by Picasso. Behind the window, another café is La Petite Madeleine, reminding the ballerina from the Casino de Paris who followed him to Japan and died of an overdose in Tokyo in 1936.
In a series titled Hommage à La Fontaine, Foujita brings human attitudes and expressions to zoomorphic figures. On October 11, 2018 at lot 18, Bonhams sold for £ 7.1M from a lower estimate of £ 900K La Fête d'anniversaire, oil on canvas 77 x 102 cm. Proud of his speed in producing a masterpiece, the artist has taken care to inscribe in the verso the time he spent to make it, 79 hours.
The scene evokes the Flemish and Dutch banquets of the 17th century. Around the table, the animals are happy and one of the cats is hilarious. As in Isaiah's Paradise, the differentiation of the species does not allow them to eat each other : the meal is composed of fish, fruits and cakes. The artist's frame 92 x 116 cm is illustrated with kitchen utensils.
The figure of a nude woman in the artist's signature style is nailed on the wall. She is the only fully human form in this painting that Foujita has humorously re-signed at that place.
Foujita stays in New York for a few months. He understands that he was wrong and that art should not glorify war but express peace and beauty. He enthusiastically prepares an exhibition on new themes.
The figuration remains done with a thin line in the Japanese style. The staging is inspired by his great knowledge of Western art. The works include interwoven symbols beside personal reminiscences.
For example, Au Café, oil on canvas kept at the Centre Pompidou, follows L'Absinthe by Degas, les Folies Bergères by Manet and le Lapin Agile by Picasso. Behind the window, another café is La Petite Madeleine, reminding the ballerina from the Casino de Paris who followed him to Japan and died of an overdose in Tokyo in 1936.
In a series titled Hommage à La Fontaine, Foujita brings human attitudes and expressions to zoomorphic figures. On October 11, 2018 at lot 18, Bonhams sold for £ 7.1M from a lower estimate of £ 900K La Fête d'anniversaire, oil on canvas 77 x 102 cm. Proud of his speed in producing a masterpiece, the artist has taken care to inscribe in the verso the time he spent to make it, 79 hours.
The scene evokes the Flemish and Dutch banquets of the 17th century. Around the table, the animals are happy and one of the cats is hilarious. As in Isaiah's Paradise, the differentiation of the species does not allow them to eat each other : the meal is composed of fish, fruits and cakes. The artist's frame 92 x 116 cm is illustrated with kitchen utensils.
The figure of a nude woman in the artist's signature style is nailed on the wall. She is the only fully human form in this painting that Foujita has humorously re-signed at that place.
1959 Takao by Kazuo Shiraga
2018 SOLD for € 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1959 Endless White by Yayoi Kusama
2019 SOLD for HK$ 62M including premium
Yayoi Kusama arrives in New York City in June 1958, bringing therein her obsessions and her hallucinogenic visions. She is nothing but a small insignificant dot in the infinity of mankind, but she would like this dot to become highly visible.
In 1959 she covers her canvases with a network of regularly spaced dots in white paint, in a minimalist gesture that she reproduces without any other modification than thickness variations.
This work is never finished. She is able to perform it without resting during forty or fifty hours, satiating her body and subconscious mind in this repetitive task. Each of these identical dots was at one moment an achievement of her creation. When a canvas is entirely filled with that white proliferation, she begins another one that can be viewed as its extension.
She reaches her target of astonishing the New York arts community. Her art is the opposite of all tendencies : it does not offer the global effect of abstract expressionism, nor the gestural amplitude of action painting, nor the new figuration of pop art. Her monochrome white is not a sign of purity but a provocation. Donald Judd is amazed.
No. 2, 183 x 274 cm, which had belonged to Judd, was sold for $ 5.8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2008. Interminable net # 3, 133 x 125 cm, was sold for $ 5.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Interminable net # 4, 144 x 109 cm, is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 1, lot 1144.
The creative act is a temporary therapy that does not solve her obsession against sex. Wanting to face it like Dali had done thirty years earlier, she will end her New York period in exhibitionism and pornography.
In 1959 she covers her canvases with a network of regularly spaced dots in white paint, in a minimalist gesture that she reproduces without any other modification than thickness variations.
This work is never finished. She is able to perform it without resting during forty or fifty hours, satiating her body and subconscious mind in this repetitive task. Each of these identical dots was at one moment an achievement of her creation. When a canvas is entirely filled with that white proliferation, she begins another one that can be viewed as its extension.
She reaches her target of astonishing the New York arts community. Her art is the opposite of all tendencies : it does not offer the global effect of abstract expressionism, nor the gestural amplitude of action painting, nor the new figuration of pop art. Her monochrome white is not a sign of purity but a provocation. Donald Judd is amazed.
No. 2, 183 x 274 cm, which had belonged to Judd, was sold for $ 5.8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2008. Interminable net # 3, 133 x 125 cm, was sold for $ 5.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Interminable net # 4, 144 x 109 cm, is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 1, lot 1144.
The creative act is a temporary therapy that does not solve her obsession against sex. Wanting to face it like Dali had done thirty years earlier, she will end her New York period in exhibitionism and pornography.
1960 The Winged Artist
2019 SOLD for € 7.8M including premium
From 1959 Kazuo Shiraga takes as his favorite theme the 108 Stars of Destiny, a Ming epic novel whose reading in a Japanese translation had fascinated him during his childhood.
This theme is basically rebellious. 108 bandits form an army after being banished by a god. In a strictly ranked hierarchy, they are divided into 36 dominant heavenly spirits and 72 operational earthly demons. It is assigned to each of them a star, a fetish nickname, a specific role in the army and a weapon.
Shiraga places the canvas flat on the floor as Pollock had done. He pours the paint from big buckets, clings to a rope that hangs from the ceiling and pushes the color with his bare feet, creating shapes and waves until his physical exhaustion. He now uses large canvases that allow him to amplify the free movement of his legs and feet, for the extreme expression of mythical martial energies.
This method is personal and unique. It comes at the right time in the history of art, now open to all gestural expressions and happenings such as the action of the arm of Franz Kline and the knife of Lucio Fontana, and just before the Anthropométries of Yves Klein.
On December 4 in Paris, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas painted in 1960 in the largest format used by the artist, 182 x 273 cm, lot 4 estimated € 5M. It is made in black monochrome, with a very large thickness of paint that becomes almost a sculpture with its powerful movements in an arc. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Shiraga offers here his reincarnation of the 25th heavenly spirit, the Winged Tiger, named Lei Heng in Chinese and Tentaisei Soushiko in Japanese. He is in the legend an infantry leader, armed with a long saber named podao in Chinese used in the battles to slice the legs of the horses.
Lower in the hierarchy, Chikisei Sesuisho, the 44th character and 8th demon, was painted in the same year. This 130 x 193 cm oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 21M including premium by Christie's on May 30, 2016.
Painted in black and red in 1959 on the theme of a Japanese mountain with an ascetic tradition, Takao, oil on canvas 182 x 273 cm, was sold for € 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on June 6, 2018 over a lower estimate of € 1,8M.
This theme is basically rebellious. 108 bandits form an army after being banished by a god. In a strictly ranked hierarchy, they are divided into 36 dominant heavenly spirits and 72 operational earthly demons. It is assigned to each of them a star, a fetish nickname, a specific role in the army and a weapon.
Shiraga places the canvas flat on the floor as Pollock had done. He pours the paint from big buckets, clings to a rope that hangs from the ceiling and pushes the color with his bare feet, creating shapes and waves until his physical exhaustion. He now uses large canvases that allow him to amplify the free movement of his legs and feet, for the extreme expression of mythical martial energies.
This method is personal and unique. It comes at the right time in the history of art, now open to all gestural expressions and happenings such as the action of the arm of Franz Kline and the knife of Lucio Fontana, and just before the Anthropométries of Yves Klein.
On December 4 in Paris, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas painted in 1960 in the largest format used by the artist, 182 x 273 cm, lot 4 estimated € 5M. It is made in black monochrome, with a very large thickness of paint that becomes almost a sculpture with its powerful movements in an arc. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Shiraga offers here his reincarnation of the 25th heavenly spirit, the Winged Tiger, named Lei Heng in Chinese and Tentaisei Soushiko in Japanese. He is in the legend an infantry leader, armed with a long saber named podao in Chinese used in the battles to slice the legs of the horses.
Lower in the hierarchy, Chikisei Sesuisho, the 44th character and 8th demon, was painted in the same year. This 130 x 193 cm oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 21M including premium by Christie's on May 30, 2016.
Painted in black and red in 1959 on the theme of a Japanese mountain with an ascetic tradition, Takao, oil on canvas 182 x 273 cm, was sold for € 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on June 6, 2018 over a lower estimate of € 1,8M.
1960 White by Yayoi Kusama
2014 SOLD for $ 7.1M including premium by Christie's
1995 The Doll Incubator
2020 SOLD for HK$ 103M including premium
Yoshitomo Nara spent twelve years in Germany, from 1988 to 1994 studying art in Düsseldorf and until 2000 in his studio in Cologne. The clear line appeals to the Japanese, accustomed to prints and manga.
To express his relationship to the world, the artist paints portraits of baby girls, with changing facial expressions. They do not play. They are malicious or treacherous. The color of the garment confirms the expression : light blue to be nice, bright red to be nasty. Knife behind back, inspired by the artist's visit to Auschwitz, has a red dress. This 234 x 208 cm acrylic on canvas painted in 2000 was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
On December 3 in Hong Kong, Phillips in collaboration with Poly sells Hothouse Doll - in the White Room III, lot 5 estimated HK $ 50M, illustrated by Phillips in a very short video.
Painted in 1995, this acrylic on canvas 120 x 110 cm is a seminal work of this series. The title describes the scene. The child is seated, legs tight and arms dangling, like a doll that has been installed on the floor. Hothouse has a meaning of incubator : she wants to express a maturity greater than her apparent age in order to inspire adults. The space around her is uniformly white. The dress is blue.
The artist has given up the distortions of the face. The diverging strabismus of the wide almond-shaped eyes brings an enigmatic and distant temperament that the artist will reuse throughout his career.
To express his relationship to the world, the artist paints portraits of baby girls, with changing facial expressions. They do not play. They are malicious or treacherous. The color of the garment confirms the expression : light blue to be nice, bright red to be nasty. Knife behind back, inspired by the artist's visit to Auschwitz, has a red dress. This 234 x 208 cm acrylic on canvas painted in 2000 was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
On December 3 in Hong Kong, Phillips in collaboration with Poly sells Hothouse Doll - in the White Room III, lot 5 estimated HK $ 50M, illustrated by Phillips in a very short video.
Painted in 1995, this acrylic on canvas 120 x 110 cm is a seminal work of this series. The title describes the scene. The child is seated, legs tight and arms dangling, like a doll that has been installed on the floor. Hothouse has a meaning of incubator : she wants to express a maturity greater than her apparent age in order to inspire adults. The space around her is uniformly white. The dress is blue.
The artist has given up the distortions of the face. The diverging strabismus of the wide almond-shaped eyes brings an enigmatic and distant temperament that the artist will reuse throughout his career.
1997 Breakfast at Tokyo
2010 SOLD for $ 6.8M including premium
2019 SOLD for $ 3.1M including premium
PRE 2019 SALE DISCUSSION
In Japan, the Otaku culture applies to a contradictory aspect of contemporary life : the geek is alone at home, obsessed with video games and comics that bring him a sexually loaded fantasy world. The first sculptures by Takashi Murakami are a translation of the otaku into life size characters. They also provide a Japanese sequel to Jeff Koons' Pink Panther.
The first work in this series, in 1997, is Miss ko², painted in oil and acrylic on fiberglass and synthetic resin. It has been executed in 3 copies plus one artist's proof, slightly different from each other for the details of the painting in manga and Playboy styles.
The figure is directly inspired by the sexy uniforms of the waitresses at Anna Miller restaurant in Tokyo. The Miss stretches her arm as for offering breakfast, with an enticing commercial smile.
She is thin with big breasts, wearing a miniskirt covered with a little apron, and has panties. Paradoxically this modern geisha also has the schoolgirl tie and a big juvenile knot in the hair. With her much extended legs above high heels, she reaches 1.83 m high.
The copy 3/3 was discussed in this column in 2010. It was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips de Pury on November 8, 2010, lot 10. At the same time, another copy participated in the Murakami solo exhibition inside the Château de Versailles which horrified the French traditionalists. Then the attention has dropped. The same copy was sold for HK $ 23M including premium by Sotheby's on April 2, 2017 and is estimated $ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 46.
Immediately after Miss ko², Murakami makes his obscene couple inspired more directly from American pop art and counterculture : Hiropon, the woman, in 1997, and My Lonesome Cowboy, the man, in 1998. A copy of the cowboy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
In Japan, the Otaku culture applies to a contradictory aspect of contemporary life : the geek is alone at home, obsessed with video games and comics that bring him a sexually loaded fantasy world. The first sculptures by Takashi Murakami are a translation of the otaku into life size characters. They also provide a Japanese sequel to Jeff Koons' Pink Panther.
The first work in this series, in 1997, is Miss ko², painted in oil and acrylic on fiberglass and synthetic resin. It has been executed in 3 copies plus one artist's proof, slightly different from each other for the details of the painting in manga and Playboy styles.
The figure is directly inspired by the sexy uniforms of the waitresses at Anna Miller restaurant in Tokyo. The Miss stretches her arm as for offering breakfast, with an enticing commercial smile.
She is thin with big breasts, wearing a miniskirt covered with a little apron, and has panties. Paradoxically this modern geisha also has the schoolgirl tie and a big juvenile knot in the hair. With her much extended legs above high heels, she reaches 1.83 m high.
The copy 3/3 was discussed in this column in 2010. It was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips de Pury on November 8, 2010, lot 10. At the same time, another copy participated in the Murakami solo exhibition inside the Château de Versailles which horrified the French traditionalists. Then the attention has dropped. The same copy was sold for HK $ 23M including premium by Sotheby's on April 2, 2017 and is estimated $ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 46.
Immediately after Miss ko², Murakami makes his obscene couple inspired more directly from American pop art and counterculture : Hiropon, the woman, in 1997, and My Lonesome Cowboy, the man, in 1998. A copy of the cowboy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
1998 My Lonesome Cowboy by Murakami
2008 SOLD for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Otaku is the fake culture by which the Japanese indulge in manga and video games without limits, deliberately ignoring the real world. Takashi Murakami perceives a similarity of Otaku with American Pop Art, and especially with the pornographic drift of Warhol.
In 1996 Murakami creates a production business to publish his art. He names it the Hiropon Factory. Factory here is a direct reference to Warhol's workshop, and Hiropon is a Japanese slang for heroin (the drug). This company will be incorporated in 2001 as Kaikai Kiki.
Under the pretext of revealing the underlying sexuality of Otaku, Murakami immediately creates a triad of life-size fiberglass characters, each published in an edition of three plus one or two artist's proofs. Each unit is painted by the artist in oil and acrylic. Colors vary, as Koons does in his Celebrations. The influence of Jeff Koons' Pink Panther on this group looks obvious.
Miss ko² is the first to appear. She is welcoming, dressed as a maid from the Anna Miller restaurant chain. The title is enticing : Ko designates a future geisha before her sexual maturity. A copy was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips on November 8, 2010 and for $ 3.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019.
The triad is completed by the obscene Western couple, with milk and semen respectively lassoed around the body of the character. The almost naked woman with the enlarged breast is Hiropon. A copy was sold for $ 430K including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2002.
The nude man has no name but this 2.54 m high figure edited in 1998 is called My Lonesome Cowboy by reference to the pornographic film Lonesome Cowboys directed in 1968 by Warhol. A copy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008 from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 9.
In 1996 Murakami creates a production business to publish his art. He names it the Hiropon Factory. Factory here is a direct reference to Warhol's workshop, and Hiropon is a Japanese slang for heroin (the drug). This company will be incorporated in 2001 as Kaikai Kiki.
Under the pretext of revealing the underlying sexuality of Otaku, Murakami immediately creates a triad of life-size fiberglass characters, each published in an edition of three plus one or two artist's proofs. Each unit is painted by the artist in oil and acrylic. Colors vary, as Koons does in his Celebrations. The influence of Jeff Koons' Pink Panther on this group looks obvious.
Miss ko² is the first to appear. She is welcoming, dressed as a maid from the Anna Miller restaurant chain. The title is enticing : Ko designates a future geisha before her sexual maturity. A copy was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips on November 8, 2010 and for $ 3.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019.
The triad is completed by the obscene Western couple, with milk and semen respectively lassoed around the body of the character. The almost naked woman with the enlarged breast is Hiropon. A copy was sold for $ 430K including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2002.
The nude man has no name but this 2.54 m high figure edited in 1998 is called My Lonesome Cowboy by reference to the pornographic film Lonesome Cowboys directed in 1968 by Warhol. A copy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008 from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 9.
2000 The Threat of the Millennials
2019 SOLD for HK$ 196M including premium
In 2000 Yoshitomo Nara returns to Japan after twelve years in Germany. His style changes. The heads of little girls are replaced by full length standing portraits. The dimensions of the works increase, the outlines are less black and pastel hues soften the image.
Yoshitomo Nara does not want his art to be political. Yet it was in 2000, inspired by his recent visit to Auschwitz. The children of this era are already the Millennials, who desire to influence the evolution of the world against dangers which they cannot analyze and even less control. The titles transcribe this imaginary revolt : Last warrior subtitled The Unknown soldier, The Little ambassador.
Knife behind back is one of the strongest messages, increased by a bird's eye view without a visible surrounding. The mouth is severe and stubborn. The right hand is hidden, justifying the interpretation of the title as a threat. This 234 x 208 cm acrylic on canvas will be sold on October 6 by Sotheby's in Hong Kong, lot 1142.
The other two examples referred above, also painted in 2000, are taken from auction history. The Little ambassador, 198 x 132 cm, was sold for HK $ 24M including premium by Sotheby's on October 2, 2016. Last warrior, 165 x 150 cm, was sold for HK $ 21.7M including premium by Phillips on May 28, 2017 .
This Japanese girl is contemporary with the invention of emoji. The suggestion of a hidden object is a fruitful idea. The character soon loses his aggressiveness and smiles gently. Right hand in back, acrylic on a 180 cm circular canvas painted in 2002 and mounted on fiberglass, was sold for $ 2.17M including premium by Sotheby's on November 17, 2017.
Yoshitomo Nara does not want his art to be political. Yet it was in 2000, inspired by his recent visit to Auschwitz. The children of this era are already the Millennials, who desire to influence the evolution of the world against dangers which they cannot analyze and even less control. The titles transcribe this imaginary revolt : Last warrior subtitled The Unknown soldier, The Little ambassador.
Knife behind back is one of the strongest messages, increased by a bird's eye view without a visible surrounding. The mouth is severe and stubborn. The right hand is hidden, justifying the interpretation of the title as a threat. This 234 x 208 cm acrylic on canvas will be sold on October 6 by Sotheby's in Hong Kong, lot 1142.
The other two examples referred above, also painted in 2000, are taken from auction history. The Little ambassador, 198 x 132 cm, was sold for HK $ 24M including premium by Sotheby's on October 2, 2016. Last warrior, 165 x 150 cm, was sold for HK $ 21.7M including premium by Phillips on May 28, 2017 .
This Japanese girl is contemporary with the invention of emoji. The suggestion of a hidden object is a fruitful idea. The character soon loses his aggressiveness and smiles gently. Right hand in back, acrylic on a 180 cm circular canvas painted in 2002 and mounted on fiberglass, was sold for $ 2.17M including premium by Sotheby's on November 17, 2017.
2009 Agent Orange by Yoshitomo Nara
2020 SOLD for HK$ 66M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
2010 Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama
2019 SOLD for HK$ 54M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
2012 An Insidious Smile
2019 SOLD for HK$ 93M including premium
Born in the region of Aomori, Yoshitomo Nara is a provincial. He studied art in Düsseldorf and began his career in Germany. He is a foreigner for whom the world is an insidious threat. He transposes this impression into the attitude and expression of very young children, with a stylized line that only retains the essentials in the style of caricatures and comics.
From a distance, his little girls remain symbols of purity and innocence. A detail reveals the threat. Sleepness Night, painted in 1999, shows a girl's head with cat's eyes and a fang on either side of her mouth. This 120 x 110 cm acrylic on canvas was sold for HK $ 35M including premium by Christie's on May 25, 2019.
The world is even worse than the artist had imagined. Just before returning to Japan, he visits Auschwitz. His little girl becomes an activist. Knife behind back, acrylic 234 x 208 cm painted in 2000, was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
During the sleepless nights, his character becomes an evil being. Displaying on her head the Christian cross, Midnight Vampire, acrylic 73 x 61 cm painted in 2010, was sold for HK $ 17.5M including premium by Christie's on November 25, 2017. The little girl quietly closes her eyes but has the fangs of the cat.
Everything is getting worse in the real world. The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 took place near his hometown. Nara, who knew some victims, is at first tetanized. Later the restart of life over devastation encourages his creativity.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 54 A an acrylic on canvas 193 x 183 cm painted in 2012. The cat's eyes prepare a nice wink and the expression is smiling, but a single fang comes out at one side of the mouth. The title of the work is the immediate threat by a vampire, confirming the treacherous malaise of the modern world : Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes.
From a distance, his little girls remain symbols of purity and innocence. A detail reveals the threat. Sleepness Night, painted in 1999, shows a girl's head with cat's eyes and a fang on either side of her mouth. This 120 x 110 cm acrylic on canvas was sold for HK $ 35M including premium by Christie's on May 25, 2019.
The world is even worse than the artist had imagined. Just before returning to Japan, he visits Auschwitz. His little girl becomes an activist. Knife behind back, acrylic 234 x 208 cm painted in 2000, was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
During the sleepless nights, his character becomes an evil being. Displaying on her head the Christian cross, Midnight Vampire, acrylic 73 x 61 cm painted in 2010, was sold for HK $ 17.5M including premium by Christie's on November 25, 2017. The little girl quietly closes her eyes but has the fangs of the cat.
Everything is getting worse in the real world. The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 took place near his hometown. Nara, who knew some victims, is at first tetanized. Later the restart of life over devastation encourages his creativity.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 54 A an acrylic on canvas 193 x 183 cm painted in 2012. The cat's eyes prepare a nice wink and the expression is smiling, but a single fang comes out at one side of the mouth. The title of the work is the immediate threat by a vampire, confirming the treacherous malaise of the modern world : Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes.
