Macrocephalic children often find themselves the protagonists of Nara’s work. However, eschewing the jovial air of playfulness one would typically associate with the faux-naïf aesthetic, Nara instead imbues his creations with cynicism. The subject of the current work embodies this— her eyes are set in a squinted glare, her mouth is gnarled in a rude sneer, and a long, stitched scar mauls her features. The child looks simultaneously intimidating and tragic, an appearance unbefitting of a cherubic toddler wearing what seems to be adorable puppy ears, which brings to mind another one of the artist’s iconic characters— the droopy-eared, sleepy-eyed dog. Reflecting his lonely childhood, Nara’s child protagonists exist as defiant yet vulnerable forces in a universe that simmers with sinister undercurrents.
Provenance
Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo Private Collection Christie’s, New York, 21 September 2011, lot 45 Private Collection SBI Art Auction, Tokyo, 20 June 2020, lot 296 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
acrylic and pencil on paper 84 x 59.1 cm. (33 1/8 x 23 1/4 in.) Executed in 1998, this work is registered in the Yoshitomo Nara Online Catalogue Raisonné under registration number YNF2365 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Rabbit Hills.