W himsical, rebellious and exuding a defiant naivety, Untitled from 2008 is an instantly arresting example of Yoshitomo Nara’s celebrated billboard paintings. Returning to auction for the first t.mes in over a decade, the boldly rendered figure of the artist’s quintessential large-headed protagonist grips a guitar, her strikingly cherubic face snarling as she plays. Despite the guitar being an indispensable visual component of Nara’s oeuvre, only eight works from the acclaimed series of billboard paintings feature the artist’s heroine holding a guitar, with the present work's twin composition, 1, 2, 3, 4! It’s Everything! (Aomori Version), belonging to the artist’s own collects ion entrusted to the Aomori Museum of Art. Epitomising the very best of Nara’s oeuvre at a moment where institutional recognition of his work is at an all-t.mes high, there being two museum retrospectives being held this year alone, the transfixing Untitled is test.mes nt to the unparalleled emotional resonance and unbridled angst that situates Nara as Japan's most internationally acclaimed living painter.

Making its debut at the artist's solo show at Blum and Poe Los Angeles in 2008, Untitled is a quintessential example of the artist's beloved Ramona girl. Named in homage to the New York Punk band the Ramones, the Ramona epitomises Nara’s use of the ‘minor’ child as a vehicle for oppositional and subversive allegory, be it the potential of music to influence and interrupt the world of a child, or the insight that such a child’s naivety can provide in a corrupted world. Confronted by the glowering scrutiny of the little punk rocker in her saccharinely sweet green dress, the little Ramona's penetrating gaze speaks to our own discontents and aggressions against an imperfect world. The lonesome performer of the present work is concurrently innocent and violent, docile and unruly, illustrating the radical potential of subversive and anarchic youth, with Nara subverting the meaning of a familiar image, creating a dichotomy between visual expectation and reality. As Nara describes, "these works were born not from confronting the other, but from confronting [his] own self." (Yoshitomo Nara quoted in, Yoshitomo Nara, Los Angeles 2020 (online)).

For Nara, music is a vital component of both his working practice and the emotive spirit behind his art. As a young artist in the 1980s, Nara gravitated toward the anti-establishment ethos of punk music, with lyrics from bands like The Clash and the Sex Pistols appearing throughout his artwork. A major theme explored in the historic retrospective being held in the artist’s home town at the Aomori Museum of Art this year is the nascent influence of music on the young artist’s career. Recreating the “Rock Cafe” opened in 1977 in Hirosaki that was frequented by Nara as a teenager to drink coffee and listen to rock music, this exhibition traces the lineage of what would become some of the artist’s most prolific painterly motifs. Growing up in rural Japan, it was album covers that provided Nara with an introduction to visual art that would go on to inform much of his work. In 2020, an entire room was dedicated to Nara’s expansive collects ion of over 350 vinyl records at the artist’s retrospective held at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Visual elements such as guitars, microphones, and speakers are indispensable components of Nara’s oeuvre, with the incorporation of these elements allowing his work to resonate with other music fans, as well as sharing his own impulse for creation. An intimate part of his creative process, Nara would work “alone in his studio, usually late at night, with punk rock screaming from speakers. He chain-smokes as he concentrates on channelling all of his past ghosts and present emotions into the deceptively simple face of his current subject" (Kristin Chambers, Nothing Ever Happens, Cleveland 2004. p.26). Set against a wash of white, Nara creates an intimate state of solitude in Untitled, the archetypal child emerging, proud and independent, with her guitar as a symbol of individuality and silently expressed emotion. Characteristic of Nara's unique artistic vernacular, these distinctly reduced backgrounds reveal an infinite space for self-reflection, with Nara’s universally recognisable figures representing the inner child and associated angst. In this content, the guitar becomes a symbol of creativity, a deeply personal and allegorical representation of the artist himself.

When Untitled first debuted in 2008, it appeared alongside an Americana, prairie-style wagon made of wood, representing a key stage within Nara’s creative career after the millennium. Beginning to collaborate with architecture and design collects ive graf on creating a series of small huts within exhibition spaces during the 2000s, Nara also began to work on a series of large size billboard paintings, which are essentially acrylic on wooden panels that can be shown outside of a gallery wall setting. According to the artist, this format of stepping away from typical white cube gallery spaces is fundamentally a challenge to the viewer’s experience; “Rather than merely offering the work for the viewers to see face-on, I want to trigger their imaginations. This way, each individual can see my work with his or her own unique, imaginative mind. People with very imaginative minds perhaps can see something more than I can, and the reverse is true: to those with no imagination, my work will appear just like rubbish” (Melissa Chiu, “A Conversation with the Artist”, Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool, Asia Society, 2010). Favouring such objects as wood, signboard and cardboard during this period, the present work exemplifies Nara’s skill in conquering a vast surface of readymade materials whilst maintaining his own signatory aesthetics. Against the blush of the child’s cheeks the visible grain of the large wood panels surface, with almond-shaped kernels in the material reflecting the sharply delineated slope of her eyes.

Flawlessly executed and instantly beguiling, Untitled is a test.mes nt to Yoshitomo Nara’s idiosyncratic artistic vernacular and universally relatable imagery. Nara’s heroine, with her snarling expression and defiant playing of her guitar, confronts imperceptible adversaries to reveal our own rebellious nature within. With Nara’s institutional recognition at an all-t.mes high, the last three years have see major museum retrospectives at the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, Aomori Museum of Art in Japan, as well as the travelling exhibition at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Frieder Burda Museum, Baden-Baden, and Hayward Gallery-Southbank Centre, London.

作 於2008年的《無題》充滿奇思妙想、叛逆天真，讓人瞬間著迷，無疑是奈良美智備受讚譽的告示牌繪畫之臻絕典範。此作在十多年後重回拍場，帶來奈良的招牌大頭女主角。她有著天真無邪的臉龐，手持吉他，擺出咆哮的表情演奏，形象大膽鮮明。雖然吉他是奈良作品中的經典視覺元素，但在其著名告示牌畫作系列中，只有八幅作品中的女主角手持吉他。由此可見，此作非常特別，而其姐妹作《1, 2, 3, 4！這就是一切 ﹗（青森版）》則屬於藝術家本人的珍藏，先託存青森縣立美術館。藝術家的作品深得各大藝術館垂青，僅今年就有兩間博物館為奈良美智舉辦回顧展，可見認可程度空前鼎盛。引人入勝的《無題》充分體現了奈良美智的風格精髓，為觀者帶來無可比擬的情緒共鳴及狂暴憤怒，再次印證奈良是日本最受國際讚譽的在世畫家。

2008年，《無題》在洛杉磯Blum and Poe畫廊的奈良美智個展中首次亮相人前，作品上畫有藝術家心愛的招牌女孩—雷蒙娜（Ramona），這名字乃向紐約龐克樂團「雷蒙斯」（Ramones）致敬。奈良透過這位「小」孩子，帶出兩種對立的喻意：音樂可能影響或干擾孩子的世界，但與此同時，孩子的純真能為腐敗的世界帶來啟迪。小小的龐克巨星雷蒙娜身穿甜美的綠色連身裙，其批判而銳利的目光，道出了我們對這不完美世界的不滿和敵意。這位孤身表演者既單純又暴力，既溫馴又任性，展現了年青人危險而放肆的激進本質。奈良顛覆了一個家喻戶曉的形象含義，創作出視覺期望與現實之間的落差，正如藝術家本人表示：「這些作品是為了直面自我而生，並非為了對抗他人。」（奈良美智，摘自〈Yoshitomo Nara〉，洛杉磯，2020年，（網上文章））

對奈良美智而言，音樂既是他創作實踐的重要元素，也是其作品背後的情感精髓。在1980年代，年輕的奈良被龐克音樂的反建制理念所吸引，其作品呼應了不少樂隊，如衝擊合唱團（The Clash）和性手槍樂團（Sex Pistols）的歌詞。今年，位於奈良故鄉的青森縣立美術館為藝術家舉辦了回顧展，而展覽探討的主題之一，正是音樂對他年輕時帶來的薰陶。在青少年時代，奈良經常流連於1977年在弘前市開張的「搖滾咖啡店」喝咖啡並聽搖滾樂。這場展覽將該咖啡店還原呈現人前，帶領觀者追溯奈良一些最多產的繪畫主題之靈感來源。奈良美智在日本鄉村長大，唱片封面是他接觸視覺藝術的入門途徑，這對他的作品影響深遠。2020年，洛杉磯郡藝術博物館為奈良美智舉辦回顧展，並用上一整個展廳，專門展示他超過350張黑膠唱片的龐大收藏。

吉他、麥克風、音響等視覺元素，是奈良美智作品中不可或缺的部分。這些元素讓他的作品與其他樂迷產生共鳴，同時也表達了他自己的創作律動。藝術家的創作過程中一個非常個人的部分，就是他「通常在深夜，獨自在工作室工作，揚聲器大聲播放著龐克搖滾音樂。他一邊不斷抽煙，一邊集中精力，將所有過去的回憶和現在的情緒，引導至眼前看似簡單的人物面容上。」（錢伯斯，《Nothing Ever Happens》，克利夫蘭，2004年，頁26）。奈良於《無題》透彩的白色背景上，營造出一種親密的獨立狀態：一個典型的奈良美智孩子，以驕傲而獨立姿態出現，其吉他象徵著她的個性，以及其無法言喻的情感。畫作被簡化的空曠背景是奈良獨有的藝術語彙，揭示了遼闊無垠的自省空間，而可一眼認出的畫中人物，則代表了內心的孩子及其滿腔焦慮。在這背景下，吉他成為了創造力的象徵，一個深具藝術家個人意義的寓意式象徵。

 《無題》在2008年首次亮相時，與一輛美國傳統大草原風格木造手推車一併展出，這代表著奈良千禧年後創作生涯中一個關鍵時期。在2000年代，奈良開始與建築及設計團體「graf」合作，在展覽空間內創作一系列小屋。與此同時，他也著手在木板塗上壓克力彩，創作能展出於畫廊外牆上的一系列大型告示牌畫作。根據藝術家的說法，這種脫離傳統美術館空間的展示形式從根本上挑戰了人們的觀賞體驗：「我希望激發觀眾想像，而不是純粹讓他們觀賞作品。如此一來，每人都能發揮自己獨有的想像力來解讀我的作品。那些想像力豐富的觀者，他們看到的也許比我更多，反之亦然：對於那些沒甚想像力的人而言，我的作品可能看來猶如垃圾。」（奈良美智，摘自〈A Conversation with the Artist〉，《奈良美智：沒有人是傻瓜》，趙穎思，亞洲協會，2010年）。在這段時期，奈良偏好使用木材、告示牌及紙皮等物件，而本作正好體現了他駕馭大量現成物料的功架，同時保留自己獨有的美學風格。在畫中孩子的粉紅面頰上，可見大木板表面的紋理，而這材質上的杏狀顆粒，則反映出女孩雙眼清晰的輪廓。

《無題》一作巧奪天工，令人沉醉，它完美展現了奈良美智獨樹一幟的藝術風格，以及能引起廣泛共鳴的圖像。奈良筆下的女主角擺出咆哮的表情，叛逆地彈奏吉他，驅使觀者直面內心難以察覺的對立面，揭露出埋藏深處的反叛天性。過去三年，奈良美智在洛杉磯當代藝術館及日本青森縣立美術館舉辦了大型回顧展，並於西班牙畢爾包古根漢美術館、巴登•巴登弗列德・布爾達博物館及倫敦南岸海沃美術館進行回顧巡展，可見各大機構對這位藝術家的認可，如今已達到空前的高度。