Galerie Zink & Gegner, Munich Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Munich, Pinakothek der Moderne, Yoshimoto Nara & Hiroshi Sugito: Over the Rainbow, 11 November 2004 - 13 February 2005, exh. cat., p. 33 (illustrated) Düsseldorf, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Yoshimoto Nara & Hiroshi Sugito: Over the Rainbow, 12 March - 29 May 2005
Literature
Bijutsu Shuppan Sha, Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works Volume 1 - Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs, Tokyo, Japan, 2011, p. PC-2004-003, p. 221 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Untitled 2004, combines Yoshitomo Nara’s iconic portraiture with the eerie style of Hiroshi Sugito’s magical landscapes. The girl’s penetrating gaze is instantly arresting, an effect emphasised by the scale of her depiction. She fills the entire canvas and appears to reach beyond its confines to inhabit the realm of the viewer. This sense of immediacy is made more striking by the painting’s colourful rendering, establishing a bright aesthetic palette which serves to highlight and convey the minimalism of the girl’s features. The artists first met in 1986, when Sugito was a student under Nara, and both explored similar thematic concerns around childhood, solitude and the confluence of East and West. This work is part of the Over the Rainbow series which the two artists developed during a three month residency in Vienna, Austria, collaborating on a published book and hosting a joint exhibition. The project takes the magical land of the Wizard of Oz as its point of departure, an influence which can be noted, for example, in the Dorothy-inspired ginger braids of the girl in Untitled. This is a key piece in the collaboration between Sugito and Nara and thus stands as a testament to the prolific and stimulating meeting of these significant creative minds.
Property from an Important Private European Collection