Hand-painted ceramic plate

92.6 x 92.6 x 8.2 cm. 36 1/2 x 36 1/2 x 3 2/9 in.

Signed in English and titled around the plate

LITERATURE
2010, Yoshitomo Nara: Ceramics Works, Foil Co., Ltd, Tokyo, p.92
2011, Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works, vol. 1: Painting, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs 1984 - 2010, Bijutsu Publishing House, Tokyo, p.296
PROVENANCE
Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York
Private Collection, USA
23 Mar 2017, Christie's Hong Kong First Open Auction, Lot 28
Important Private Collection, Asia

With an Ear to the Hollow, Listening to the Artist's Most Intimate Thoughts
Yoshitomo Nara's First Ceramic Work: Baby Baby I Never Dream

In the fall of 2006, Yoshitomo Nara held a personal exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. At the time, he had enlisted the aid of volunteers in constructing a huge stuffed dog. This amusing experience had given him a desire to create using other media than painting. Therefore, in 2007, when Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park invited him to take part in a residence program, he was all too eager to accept. During his residence, Nara rapidly grasped the essence of ceramics and produced his first ever ceramic work. Thus began Nara's more than 20 year-long love affair with this medium — a love affair that has endured to this day. This experimentation with ceramics also helped Nara soar to new heights in his artistic career.

The Humility of the Earth: Recording Mantras in a Traditional Medium
The work open for bidding at this autumn auction, entitled Baby Baby I Never Dream, originates from the series of so-called ceramic paintings that Nara created at the Ceramic Cultural Park. The artwork has a diameter close to one meter, making it the tenth largest out of all of Nara's ceramic plates, all of them characterized by their large dimensions. For a long time, Nara has cultivated an interest in ancient Korean crockery, particularly Joseon white porcelain. At the same time as preserving their traditional form and color, Nara exaggerates their size until they become a three-dimensional canvas of sorts. This change in size also transforms their purpose. For Nara, creating porcelain works is a completely foreign experience. Kneading clay simultaneously exercises the brain, eyes, and hands. This engrossing process caused the artist to reflect upon his innocent childhood. “When I work with clay, I am released from oppressive feelings and can gain a sense of inner tranquility.”

While ceramics may be a completely new medium for Nara, his trademark little girl is ever present, creating a familiar link with his previous works. In contrast to his paintings, with their vibrant color schemes reminiscent of fairytale illustrations, Nara uses a single shade of black on his ceramic works, etching the traits of his characters on the smooth surface of the porcelain in bold brush strokes. In this way, he develops a relationship with this medium based on its unique properties. As Nara said himself, “I'm seemingly not all that interested in glazes and glazing techniques. What I like is the artistic effect conveyed in black-and-white photography. It is this effect that I want to share with my audience. It is the essence of my artistic creation and transcends the technical limitations of ceramics.” If Nara's oil paintings serve to encourage the beholder to engage in a dialogue with the self, then his simple black illustrations on smooth porcelain are more a kind of spontaneous self-expression that contains the same overflowing life-force as the traditional Japanese art form of ceramic dolls. On the border of the plate, the artist has written a bold declaration. This text and the image in the center complement and complete one another, evoking a childlike world that is at odds with traditional ceramics.

Walking the Line between Dreams and Reality
“Although going back in time is an impossible feat, I have discovered that as long as you remember how you felt in the beginning, nothing will be lost.”
— Yoshitomo Nara

In Baby Baby I Never Dream, Nara's quintessentially strange little girl is not taking part in any activity — instead, she sleeps with a gentle, peaceful expression on her face. Her faint smile contrasts with the typical rebellious, provocative expression that Nara's characters normally bear. Rather than the self-conscious aggression of Nara's other works, this work portrays the authentic and pure feelings that an individual unconsciously reveals upon letting his or her guard down. The stars that twinkle above the girl are seemingly a manifestation of her dream world. This vast and dazzling night sky creates the same dreamy quality as the famous “Mr. Tambourine Man” as sung by Bob Dylan.

When the viewer's gaze shifts from the center to the border, the eye-catching text, from which the work draws its title, pulls them from charming narrative back to the real world. In this work, Yoshitomo Nara uses a round border to separate the text from the characters, almost as if to create a hole like a hollow in a tree where he shares his most intimate thoughts — or, alternatively, to make it seem as though the young girl's dream world is encapsulated in a thin bubble. The latter image gives a sense of the fragility and transience of our most cherished dreams. At the same time, by painting this scene, the artist has immortalized the young girl's slumber. The titular sentence that surrounds her adds a touch of realism to an otherwise dreamy scene.

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,500,000 – 2,500,000
USD: 191,300 – 318,800

Auction Result:
HKD: 2,124,000