I nstigating an expansive discourse around themes of innocence, Yoshitomo Nara’s oeuvre not only harnesses an address that is both highly personal and universally relatable, but also activates a study on the canon of the gaze through the infinitely repeated iterations of his doe-eyed young girls. In the very best examples of Nara’s oeuvre, it is the figure’s eyes that form the crux of subtle narratives, acting as the psychological centers of engagement. Executed in 2003, Standing Alone displays to flawless perfection the most distinctive features of Nara’s mature works – a female figure in a tranquil or contemplative state with strikingly lustrous eyes, here in a singular shade of chartreuse. The subject's electric and magnetic gaze is arresting yet ambiguous; we are held captive, spellbound and transfixed, yet never certain whether her scrutiny is adulatory or accusatory, mischievous or wise, stern or benign. Aided by delicately virtuous brushwork and texture’s, Standing Alone exemplifies Nara’s mature, more meditative and introspective aesthetic, underscored by deeper contemplations on the self and the world.

Within the past year alone, there have been three major exhibitions of Nara’s work, with shows at Dallas Contemporary and the Kuandu Museum of Replica Handbags s in Taipei, as well as the artist’s first international retrospective which took place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to great acclaim.

During the period in which this work was executed, Nara's monochromatic backgrounds became reductive and highly distinctive – his brushstrokes increasingly painterly and rendered with a softer palette and gentle depth. Through masterful layering and chromatic hues, the composition of Standing Alone conveys an ambiguous vacuity when juxtaposed against the solitary figure, an allegory for the self, situated within a vast, indifferent, and alienating world. What initially feels to resemble a pastel wash reveals itself to be born of several coats of semi-translucent acrylic that are slowly built upon in successive layers, reminiscent of a technique learned from his tutor, the renowed artist Peter Doig, at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf.

This spirit of isolation and rebellion is echoed in Nara’s own life. As Kristin Chambers notes: "Nara works alone in his studio, usually late at night, with punk rock screaming from speakers. He chain-smokes as he concentrates on channeling all of his past ghosts and present emotions into the deceptively simple face of his current subject." (Kristin Chambers. "A Visit to Naraland,” in: Exh. Cat., Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Nothing Ever Happens, 2004. p.26). If upon an initial glance the reduced composition suggests the narrative is uncomplicated, this effect soon wears off. Nara's formally void backgrounds and universally recognizable figures reveal an infinite space for self-reflection, and for the viewer to their own inner child and associated angst. Combining the traditions of Japanese theatrical masks and Ukiyo-e prints, the graphic style of Manga, the alluring archetypes of Pop, and the rebellious spirit of punk rock, Standing Alone embodies the deeply personal and intuitive amalgamation of art historical tendencies characteristic of Nara's unique artistic vernacular.

Like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Nara is subverting the meaning of a familiar image, creating a dichotomy between visual expectation and reality. Lichtenstein’s comic strips, depicting tearful, isolated women and soldiers in action, betray something about a society that fetishizes violence and war, compelled by visions of heroic men saving helpless women. It was by removing them from their context and presenting them as isolated images that Lichtenstein exposed this tendency, just as Warhol’s paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy exposed not just a collects ive obsession with celebrity, but more fundamentally, a ghoulish fascination with and fear of death. In his work, Nara’s co-opts the kawaii aesthetics of Manga and creates characters that confirm in their aesthetic but rebel in their actions. His little girls are not doing as they ought to, and that change exposes the collects ive expectation of how they should behave – that is, in a demure, innocent, childlike, pliable fashion.

Nara’s creative process in the late 2000s onward has slowed down to become more meticulous, meditative and introspective. In the artist’s own words:

Instead of contextual motifs, such as the cigarettes, knives, torches and fangs frequently found in his earlier works, Nara communicates a heightened poignancy via line and color alone. Elsewhere Nara observes how his methodology has become increasingly introspective, noting that: “When I work this way there’s a lot more of a conversation that I have with the image, or with the person who’s depicted in the image. That’s really me having a conversation with myself. It allows me to draw out parts of myself that I’m not even aware are there” (the artist cited in "Japanese artist has a taste for Hong Kong," South China Morning Post, 9 March 2015).

Artist

Yoshitomo Nara