Coloured pencil, pencil and crayon on paper

21 × 22.4 cm. 8 1/2 x 8 7/8 in.

Signed in English and dated on bottom right
EXHIBITED
20 Jan – 24 Feb 1996, Hothouse Fresh, Gallery Hakutosha, Nagoya

PROVENANCE
16 Jul 2016, SBI Art Auction, Lot 33
Private Collection, Asia

The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Rabbit Hills

A Voice of Peace against the War and Nuclear Armament
Yoshitomo Nara, Messenger of Peace
There is innocence and rebellion in works by Nara. From angry girls to lazy boys, his pieces of art inadvertently touch the inner hearts of many. Remembrance is an important source of inspiration for the artist, who was born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, a rural town a 10-hour drive from bustling Tokyo. His parents were often outside due to work, and he spent his childhood accompanied by a beautiful stray cat his family adopted, countryside cattle and sheep, and also music on the radio and illustrated books he had access to at home.
His mother let Nara draw on the blank surfaces of all kinds of posters and leaflets she deliberately kept, which became the main pastime of his childhood. The habits the artist developed as a child did not change when he became an adult, and he still likes to scribble in his notebook or on discarded wrapping paper. As he is not a sociable person, drawing became a way to express his inner world. Untitled, featured at this auction, is an early paper work Nara created in 1986. His hopes for world peace served as the main inspiration for Untitled. Compared to his many other works, which are imbued with the overwhelming fear of death and disaster from that period, this work resembles a dazzling rainbow blooming in the darkness.
Giraffe, a Messenger of Peace
In the center of the picture is a giraffe riding a blue skateboard, wearing a red shirt with the peace sign and a blue X on its forehead. Light emanates from its neck, forming a rainbow-colored halo. A red line connects it to a girl with blonde hair, and in the bottom left corner, there is a rainbow flower. Most of its petals are not radiant, with the exception of one petal connected to the stem that emits a golden light. The artist used a light red line to outline above the flower a sketch of a tower, captioned “Eiffel”, indicating that this is a depiction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. However, its blank body and curved base on the right side bring a sense of insecurity and upcoming collapse.
Turbulent 1986
Nara’s anti-war and anti-nuclear attitudes are well known, and Untitled reflects his hopes for peace. As post-war Japan’s economy entered the recovery period of the 1970s, people gradually began to forget the war. However, during that time, the intensification of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union led to an escalation of the nuclear arms race. In April 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; then, in September, the attacks carried out by the Committee for Solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners in Paris paralyzed the city for days on end. The world was encountering turbulence, and it was then the anti-war and anti-nuclear wave reached its peak. Still, the United Nations subsequently declared 1986 the International Year of Peace.
Fairy-tale Characters and Objects
The most special thing about Untitled is its features reminiscent of fairy tales. The rainbow flower motif is derived from one such tale by Soviet writer Kataev, which tells a story of a rainbow flower that grants a wish every time one of its seven petals is picked. The protagonist uses six petals to fulfill her own desires, yet she does not find satisfaction. She finally uses the last petal to help others, and it is this that brings her happiness in the end. The moral of the story is that greed just brings chaos, with selfless dedication the only source of true joy. The little girl depicted in the picture is using the last petal of the rainbow flower to summon a messenger of peace — a light-emanating giraffe that seems to have the power to pacify the world. Giraffes rarely appear in Nara’s works, making this choice of animal quite peculiar. After some meticulous research, he found that African giraffes can coexist peacefully with other species; in addition, their vocal cords can emit low-frequency sounds that humans cannot hear. It can be said, then, that these creatures can communicate without making an audible sound. Nara, with his aversion to social interactions, has therefore chosen giraffes as his inner messengers of peace.
Nara’s philosophy of peace has been present throughout his entire artistic career. Some of the proof for this is the fact that the peace sign in his studio is bigger than the logo of his company. In addition, Nara drew Untitled on the reverse side of a private letter. One can imagine that while drawing, Nara’s heart was filled with spontaneity and a child-like purity.

Price estimate:
HKD: 200,000 - 300,000
USD: 25,600 - 38,500

Auction Result:
HKD: --