Description
This lot is a Premium Lot that will not be available for online bidding. Prospective buyers who wish to bid on Premium Lots must complete the pre-registration form and pay the Premium Lot deposit, as described more fully in Paragraph 1 of Phillips' Guide for Prospective Buyers. In order to arrange a bid on this work, please contact bidshongkong@phillips.com for further information.
Provenance
Tomio Koyama Galleries, Tokyo
Frahm Ltd., London
Red Dot Ltd., New York
Museum Works Galleries, Aspen
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Frahm Ltd., In Your Face, 3 February - 21 March 2003
Literature
Yoshitomo Nara: Lullaby Supermarket, exh. cat., Institut für Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg, 2002, p. 164 and p. 199 (illustrated)
Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works Volume 1: Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs 1984 – 2010, Tokyo, 2011, no. P-2000-018, p. 168 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
'Fortunately nowadays it’s no longer forbidden to be into kitsch and kid’s stuff, and only people who want to be “very” grown up can’t relate to such things’ (Yoshitomo Nara, quoted in Stephan Trescher, 'My Superficiality Is Only a Game: A Conversation between Stephan Trescher and Yoshitomo Nara', pp. 103-07, Yoshitomo Nara: Lullaby Supermarket, exh.cat., Institut für Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg, 2002, p. 105).

The girl in Yoshitomo Nara’s Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier gazes at us with a fixed, determined stare that belies her age. The cutesy charm of this doll-like figure is undercut by the downturned mouth, the pursed lips, the clenched fist and the frowning eyes, which fix us to the spot. She has been shown at an angle that emphasises the act of a child looking up—and in this case, confronting her audience. With this steely attitude, the girl well deserves her title of Last Warrior. She also clearly deserves her place within the extensive cast of bellicose youths who have become so iconic in Nara’s work, leading to his becoming one of the most celebrated Japanese artists of our age.

Dating from 2000, this picture perfectly demonstrates the intoxicating allure of Nara’s paintings, and his subjects. This is a subversive sweetness, tapping into the kima-kawaii wave that had emerged in the 1990s, shortly before Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier was painted. Kima-kawaii is cuteness with an edge, often with a hint of either ugliness or, as here, violence. In Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier, it simmers beneath the surface, percolating through the girl’s rigid glare.

Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier was painted at a pivotal point in Nara’s career, when his engaging paintings of subversively adult children were garnering him increasing international attention and acclaim. Only the previous year, his images had been used for a book by the celebrated author Banana Yoshimoto, as well as on album covers. In 2000, he was granted his first one-man show at an American museum, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. It was also in 2000 that Nara moved away from Cologne in Germany, which had been his base since 1988.

Nara’s time studying and then teaching art in Germany—in Western Europe, rather than Japan—is evident in the sheer craft and skill that have gone into making Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier, as a closer inspection of its surface will attest. While the visual language of Nara’s paintings mimics anime, manga and children’s illustrations, explaining why he is so often associated with Japanese Neo Pop, Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier and many of its sister-pictures are painstakingly created using layers of oil on canvas in techniques that echo those of the Old Masters and 20th-century painters. The essentially monochrome background of Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier is deliberately made to resemble a sheet of paper left in reserve, or a page, the figure floating against it. At the same time, it fills the picture with a luminosity that recalls some European frescoes painted in tempera on plaster. The figure itself has been rendered with an eloquent economy of means, deliberately mimicking the appearance of print media and cartoons despite the sheer effort that has gone into painting it. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Nara insists on this direct involvement with his pictures, employing no studio assistants, but instead painting with a single-minded determination (see for example G. Harris, ‘Interview: Japanese Artist Yoshitomo Nara’, Financial Times, 10 October 2014, reproduced online).

This reveals the wide panoply of influences at work in Nara’s pictures. While manga, anime and Disney may be more obvious references, Nara is also touching upon the history of art in both the East and the West—and of course their crossover. After all, born in the 1950s, Nara was raised in a Japan that had been flooded with Western, and particularly American, culture, and which had responded by assimilating elements of it, co-opting it to its own purposes, for instance in anime series such as Speed Racer. Nara himself has discussed how his upbringing in a rural area of Northern Japan had an influence in the way that he responded to all these influences. 'In the area I'm from there was no museum - and there still isn't,’ he has explained. ‘I received my visual stimuli more from television, from Japanese and American comic books, and from European children's books. That's why comic books have a greater reality for me than the European painting that I later came to know and study intensively' (Yoshitomo Nara, quoted in Stephan Trescher, 'My Superficiality Is Only a Game: A Conversation between Stephan Trescher and Yoshitomo Nara', pp. 103-07, Yoshitomo Nara: Lullaby Supermarket, exh.cat., Institut für Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg, 2002, p. 104). Likewise, punk and folk music would have an impact on Nara—the girl’s pose and haircut in Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier recalls pictures of the Ramones, the band he revered.

During his childhood, Nara was largely isolated and left to his own devices. The solitude and independence he experienced have filtered into his pictures of defiant girls shown smoking, holding weapons or scowling as in Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier. After all, as he has explained, ‘They are all self-portraits in a way. But the emotions that I feel can, of course, be universal’ (Yoshitomo Nara, quoted in J. Lindon, ‘Kultureflash Interview’, kultureflash, 1 March 2006, online).

Property of an Important Private Collector

Ο✱11

Yoshitomo Nara

Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier

2000
signed, titled and dated '"LAST WARRIOR / THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER" Nara [in Japanese] 2000' on the reverse
acrylic on canvas
165 x 150 cm (64 7/8 x 59 in.)
Painted in 2000, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Rabbit Hills.

Estimate
HK$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
€2,410,000-3,610,000
$2,560,000-3,850,000

Sold for HK$21,680,000

Contact Specialist
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+852 2318 2023

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General Enquiries
+852 2318 2000

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

Hong Kong Auction 28 May 2017

1
Jonas Wood
Mini French Open
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$1,625,000
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2
Yayoi Kusama
Cockscomb
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$2,120,000
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3
Andy Warhol
Flower
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,312,500
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4
Yayoi Kusama
Bird
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$525,000
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5
Yoshitomo Nara
Six works: Untitled (Who Snatched the Babies)
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$2,480,000
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6
KAWS
NYT
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$1,625,000
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7
Danh Vo
Alphabet (Z)
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$2,840,000
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8
Ed Ruscha
The 1990s
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$1,250,000
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9
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$1,625,000
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10
George Condo
Naked Lunch
Estimate HK$1,400,000 - 2,400,000
Sold for HK$2,480,000
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11
Yoshitomo Nara
Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier
Estimate HK$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Sold for HK$21,680,000
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12
KAWS
Seated Companion
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$3,200,000
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13
Andy Warhol
Mineola Motorcycle (positive)
Estimate HK$6,200,000 - 9,200,000
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14
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 2,200,000
Sold for HK$1,937,500
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15
This lot is no longer available.
16
Park Seo-Bo
Écriture No.961128
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,600,000
Sold for HK$1,125,000
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17
Lee Ufan
From Line, No. 80033
Estimate HK$2,300,000 - 3,300,000
Sold for HK$2,120,000
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18
Yun Hyong-Keun
Burnt Umber and Ultramarine
Estimate HK$80,000 - 120,000
Sold for HK$275,000
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19
Sean Scully
Wall of Light Green
Estimate HK$3,200,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$10,880,000
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20
Takeo Yamaguchi
Sha
Estimate HK$650,000 - 850,000
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21
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (454-4)
Estimate HK$2,400,000 - 3,500,000
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22
Damien Hirst
In a Spin, the Action of the World on Things
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$562,500
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23
This lot is no longer available.
24
Finn Juhl
Rare set of eight ‘Egyptian’ dining chairs, model no. FJ 49
Estimate HK$570,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$900,000
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25
Finn Juhl
Rare and large extendable dining table, model no. FJ 49 T
Estimate HK$230,000 - 330,000
Sold for HK$250,000
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26
Zhang Enli
Eating #4
Estimate HK$5,500,000 - 7,500,000
Sold for HK$4,880,000
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27
Yue Minjun
Mushroom Cloud
Estimate HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
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28
Zeng Fanzhi
A Man with a Straw Hat
Estimate HK$5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Sold for HK$5,120,000
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29
Christine Ay Tjoe
Small Flies and Other Wings
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$11,720,000
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30
Kazuo Shiraga
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for HK$3,440,000
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31
Atsuko Tanaka
83D
Estimate HK$1,800,000 - 2,800,000
Sold for HK$3,200,000
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32
Sadamasa Motonaga
Untitled
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,062,500
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33
Shiro Kuramata
'Miss Blanche' chair
Estimate HK$2,200,000 - 3,200,000
Sold for HK$2,240,000
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34
Yoshitomo Nara
Study for Miss Spring
Estimate HK$2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for HK$2,960,000
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35
François-Xavier Lalanne
'Agneau'
Estimate HK$650,000 - 950,000
Sold for HK$875,000
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36
François-Xavier Lalanne
Mouton ‘Brebis’
Estimate HK$950,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$1,187,500
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37
François-Xavier Lalanne
Mouton ‘Transhumant’
Estimate HK$950,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$1,187,500
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38
Ai Weiwei
Coloured Vases (in 9 parts)
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$2,120,000
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39
Sadamasa Motonaga
Work
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$1,375,000
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40
Hsiao Chin
Untitled
Estimate HK$220,000 - 320,000
Sold for HK$225,000
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41
Peter Doig
Bird House
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$5,360,000
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42
Zao Wou-Ki
09.08.50
Estimate HK$1,800,000 - 2,800,000
Sold for HK$2,240,000
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43
Chu Teh-Chun
Alentours Verdoyants II
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 2,200,000
Sold for HK$1,250,000
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44
Ju Ming
Taichi
Estimate HK$500,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$500,000
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45
Miguel Covarrubias
Balinese Woman
Estimate HK$620,000 - 720,000
Sold for HK$1,500,000
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46
Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita
Portrait de Femme
Estimate HK$200,000 - 300,000
Sold for HK$2,360,000
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47
Fernando Botero
Fin de Fiesta
Estimate HK$4,600,000 - 6,200,000
Sold for HK$5,840,000
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48
Yu Youhan
The People are the Heroes of their Time
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$625,000
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49
Max Ingrand
'Dahlia' sixteen-armed chandelier, model no. 1563
Estimate HK$120,000 - 150,000
Sold for HK$187,500
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50
Tracey Emin
Wanting You
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000 ♠
Sold for HK$850,000
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51
Li Chen
All in One
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$625,000
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52
Zeng Fanzhi
Portrait
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
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53
This lot is no longer available.
54
Finn Juhl
Pair of rare armchairs, model no. FJ 53
Estimate HK$150,000 - 250,000
Sold for HK$725,000
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55
Pierre Jeanneret
Set of six 'Committee' armchairs, model no. PJ-SI-30-A, designed for the High Court, the Assembly and Punjab University administrative buildings, Chandigarh
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for HK$1,000,000
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56
Qiu Yacai (Chiu Ya-Tsai)
Femme à la Robe Rouge
Estimate HK$300,000 - 400,000
Sold for HK$687,500
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57
Qiu Yacai (Chiu Ya-Tsai)
Portrait de Femme
Estimate HK$300,000 - 400,000
Sold for HK$750,000
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58
This lot is no longer available.
59
Yoshitomo Nara
You
Estimate HK$380,000 - 580,000
Sold for HK$750,000
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60
Gerhard Richter
Flow
Estimate HK$70,000 - 90,000
Sold for HK$106,250
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20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design...

Hong Kong Auction 28 May 2017

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Description

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Ο✱11

Yoshitomo Nara

Last Warrior / The Unknown Soldier

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

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