两个人的免费视频,99精品视频一区在线观看,久久久久亚洲av片无码下载蜜桃,老妇做爰xxxxhd老少配

by Vita Chen

Yoshitomo NARA

Midnight Vampire

Painted in 2010

Acrylic on canvas

73 × 60.5 cm

During the 2020 Olympics in Japan, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo will hold a major exhibition titled Japanese Stars, featuring works by Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. In April 2020, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will hold a 30-year retrospective on Nara and the exhibition will then travel to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Yuz Museum Shanghai, events that are certain to boost the popularity of Yoshitomo Nara.

Katsushika Hokusai

Lantern Ghost

Painted in 1930

Edvard Munch

Vampire

91 × 109 cm

Painted in 1895

Byzantine frescoes

12th century

Writing Modern Art History: Immersion and Innovation in Eastern and Western Traditional Aesthetics

One year after obtaining a Master’s Degree in Art from Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts in 1987, Yoshitomo Nara enrolled on an advanced program of study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in West Germany. During 12 years he developed a comprehensive understanding of Western materials, techniques and artistic thinking. Moreover, it was through this process that he found his own creative path. Many art critics have suggested that after Nara returned to Japan in 2000 his works entered a period of greater maturity, shifting from ‘a(chǎn) deep exploration of the inner self’, self dialogue and childhood memories to ‘radiating outwards’ as the artist started to pay more attention to such wider issues as society, the environment and trends of the times, an approach that imbued his works with greater pathos. At the same time, Nara’s brushwork evolved from rougher strokes to become finer and more profound. As a result, Yoshitomo Nara was able to use his uniquely iconic vocabulary, with its ability to transcend national borders and solicit universal empathy, as a vehicle to showcase the depth of connection between traditional Japanese aesthetics and Western modernism, through his innovative adaptations and Midnight Vampire is imbued with exactly these qualities.

Standing at the centre of a black background flowing with dark red light, is a little girl with long hair. Her eyes are closed as she faces viewers, the cross on the top of her head and the small fangs protruding from the corners of her mouth denoting she is a vampire and her connection to religion. In this way, Nara uses distinctive approach to highlight the girl’s tranquility, relaxation and warmth. In the painting, the artist deliberately uses a graphic depiction, with no depth of field between the figure in the foreground and the background. In this context, the simple background not only borrows from the minimalism of Western modernism and the beauty of ‘emptiness’ in traditional Japanese aesthetics. Within this stillness there is a solitary figure, and the little girl who appears to be meditating radiates an air of mystery, while also naturally displaying the unique Wabi-sabi (imperfect beauty) to Japanese tradition, which speak to the loneliness of existence, the impermanence of life, and the ultimate pursuit of the spiritual world.

As part of the dark background, Nara employs dramatic light to showcase the main figure, an extension of the ‘lighting method’ of Western realist master Rembrandt. In addition, the girl’s imposing broad forehead can be traced back to the aesthetics of the Renaissance. At that time, it was considered a standard beauty feature as seen in Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, both of which showcase women with foreheads that are every bit as broad as the girl in this painting by Yoshitomo Nara, which extends this distinctive aesthetic value. Moreover, the way Nara employs simplicity, two-dimensional graphics and a single image as key symbols in his narrative presents viewers with an open space into which to project their imagination. It also ingeniously dovetails with the modern anime world of Japan and the West. At this juncture, we can clearly see how the artist draws inspiration from classical Japanese and Western art, as he moves freely between tradition and modernism, Eastern and Western, employing brand new images to write an art history that belongs to him alone.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Self-portrait

Painted in 1659

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa

77 × 53 cm

The Honour of Love, Hope and Life

“If you look only at the surface, my works will not reveal anything of their meaning”

—Yoshitomo Nara

The central figure in Midnight Vampire has fangs like a small animal, an element that rarely appears in the works of Yoshitomo Nara. Indeed, this particular detail is only found in the central protagonists of nine oil paintings, six of which are ‘cats’. The artist first used fangs in King of Cat (1992). However, Midnight Vampire was the first time Nara elevated the central figure from that of a ‘cat/animal’ to a ‘person/vampire’. Furthermore, Midnight Vampire is also the first time he depicted a vampire in his more than 30-year-long artistic career, an indication as to the special meaning of the work. Vampires originated in the folklore of medieval Europe and have often been used as a creative motifs in literature and movies, depicting a mysterious creature that survives by drinking blood. For example in 1895 Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch painted Vampire, a work that depicts a vampire depicting the blood of its victim, shrouded by death. In contrast, Nara chooses a completely different interpretative path.

In Midnight Vampire, the artist’s depiction departs markedly from the accepted idea of what a vampire looks like, choosing to present this legendary creature of the night as a pure baby-faced being, its thin and frail-looking arms indicating its harmless nature, with an upright cross on top of its head. The ‘cross’ is an important symbol of Christianity, imbued with ‘love and redemption’ commonly used as a device in novels and films to destroy vampires, often thrust through the heart of the dark beast, certainly not worn as a decorative adornment as depicted by Nara. Moreover, the placement of the cross on the top of the head can be traced back to the Byzantine murals of the 12th century, though in such instances the central character was an epitome of ‘goodness’, usually Jesus Christ or an angel. In this context, Yoshitomo Nara takes the vampire, a universal symbol of ‘evil’ and fear, intriguingly elevating it to the same plane as ‘Jesus’. As a result, the young girl in the painting exudes warmth, a reflection of the life philosophy and values of the artist - that there is no such thing as pure evil in the world, as long as one focuses, love and hope can always be found in the human heart, even absolute evil can be transformed into sublime goodness. As such, this work is rich in meaning, profoundly moving and encourages the viewer to reflect, qualities that make it instantly unforgettable.

Nara Yoshitomocm

Sleepless Night (Cat)

120 × 110

Painted in 1999

Yoshitomo NARA

Midnight Vampire

Painted in 2010

Acrylic on canvas

73 × 60.5 cm

Yoshitomo NARA

King of Cat

80 × 80 cm

Painted in 1992

Yoshitomo NARA

Midnight Vampire

Painted in 2014

Acrylic on canvas