YOSHITOMO NARA (b. 1959) YOUR DOG fiberglass

Provenance
Marianne Boesky Gallery, NEW YORK
James N. and Susan A. Philips, LAGUNA NIGUEL

Exhibited
NEW YORK, Thompkins Square Park, YOUR DOG—A SCULPTURAL PAVILLION, July 18-August 13, 2002 (another example exhibited)
Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, YOSHITOMO NARA: NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, September 12, 2003-January 4, 2004 (another example exhibited)
NEWPORT BEACH, Orange County Museum of Art, YOSHITOMO NARA: YOUR DOG, November 8-June 13, 2004 San Jose Museum of Art, YOSHITOMO NARA: NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, July 24-October 31, 2004 MIAMI, Art Basel Miami, YOSHITOMO NARA: YOUR DOG SCULPTURAL PAVILLION, December 2-5, 2004 (another example exhibited)
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art (extended loan), October 2004-March 2005

Literature
S. Mizota, "Little Triggers," METRO: SILICON VALLEY'S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER, July 21-27, 2004 K. Chun, "Killer Cute: Yoshitomo Nara's work bites back at the San Jose Museum of Art," THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, September 15-September 21, 2004, vol. 38, no. 51

Simultaneously cute and menacing, Yoshitomo Nara's images of young children and childhood pets offer an engaging and enigmatic Pop Art for the new millennium. His work simultaneously weaves children's cartoons, Asian kitsch and Disney dreams, all of which call to mind a world that seems eerily familiar and represents nostalgia for childhood. Nara invites the viewer to return to a time when innocence and unruliness went hand in hand, when emotions were not filtered, when making believe was not associated with lunacy, and when the world was a fantastic kingdom to be explored, not conquered. However, Nara's nostalgia at times seems too calculated and self-mocking to really serve that purpose. Instead, their feigned innocence seem morelike an expression of an infantilizing culture that suppresses adult emotions among young and old alike.

Born in 1959, Nara was raised in a Japan defined by working families. As such, Nara became a "latch-key kid," spending time outside of school with his imagination and pets for company. It is explained that, "He recalls his youth as a time of both loneliness and freedom, of coming home to his empty house, which was set in an open expanse far from others, with only a pet for comfort and company. In act, one of Nara's recurring characters is a long-eared pup according to one story told by the artist, he abandoned a dog when he was a child, and the canine's presence seems to haunt him still" (V. Breuvart, ed., VITAMIN P: NEW PERSPECTIVES IN PAINTING,LONDON 2002, p. 232. Nara goes on to explain that, "My art represents my childhood experiences. It is not influenced by Japanese pop culture. I played with sheep, cats and dogs when I came home from school." Although parallels can be drawn to manga, the popular Japanese comic-strip form with child heroes and grim adult backdrops, Nara's tender and friendly dogs, as YOUR DOG demonstrates, offers absolution and tranquility.