YOSHITOMO NARA (B.1959)

Yoshimoto Nara is one of the leading artists of Japan’s influential Neo Pop movement and is best known for his works of simultaneously cute and wicked children and animals. Absorbing the elements of pop culture ranging from manga and anime to punk, Nara dissolves Japanese visual traditions and Western modernism to create adorable but menacing characters that possess an emotional anxiety.

Merry X’mas is Nara’s collaboration with Graf and is in ‘A to Z’ exhibition. A to Z' was an unprecedented exhibition where as many as 44 huts were gathered and installed in an old brick house in Aomori by Yoshitomo Nara and Graf. The drawing depicts a dog (Rudolph) on a flying vehicle which seems to be a sleigh. In contrast to its celebratory title, the drawing conveys a melancholic atmosphere, with the lone dog being the only figure on the sleigh while it should have been with Santa and many more Rudolph. Compared to Nara’s sketch “Merry Christmas!” (1999-2000), which depicts gleeful and enthusiastic atmosphere of the holiday, Merry X’mas (1996) lacks the colorful festive ambience. The nonchalant and indifferent sentiments could be resulted from Nara’s stay in Germany during early 1990s, when he struggled with cultural and language barrier and had deep desire for recognition and communicating with the rest of the world via his art.