(born Japan in 1959) “Two Penguins”, on reverse titled, signed, dated Yoshitomo Nara 91 and 93 with dedication, acrylic on canvas, 55 x 70 cm, on stretcher, (PS)

Provenance:
Galerie 20.21, Essen
Private Collection, North Rhine Westphalia

Exhibition:
Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Japan Pop, 9 September 2005 – 27 November 2005

Literature:
Yoshimoto Nara, The Complete Works, San Francisco 2011, P-1991-034, ill. p. 078

“Since his public emergence in the late 1990s, Yoshimoto Nara has appealed to countless art lovers and professionals with his signature images of little girls with large heads and piercing eyes, dogs with benign smiles, and hybrid creatures blending the characteristics of children, animals and ghosts. Rendered with cartoon-like distortion, these images have been repeatedly featured and reshaped his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and more recently, ceramic objects. While Nara’s art enjoys undeniable popularity, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to almost every exhibition, its critical evaluation has been many-sided, approached from such perspectives as the reemergence of figurative painting, the incorporation of pop subculture, representations of contemporary Asia, and the significance of the child in contemporary art.” Yoshimoto Nara, The Complete Works, San Francisco 2011, S. 330