Yoshitomo Nara - Contemporary Art Day Sale London Wednesday, October 14, 2015 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    McCabe Fine Art

  • Exhibited

    Cleveland, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, 12 September 2003-4 January 2004 (another example exhibited) then travelled to Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (23 January–3 April 2004), San Jose, San Jose Museum of Art (25 July 2 2004-31 October 2004), St. Louis, Contemporary Art Museum (3 December 2004-27 February 2005), Honolulu, the Contemporary Museum

  • Literature

    Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, 2003, p. 56 (illustrated)
    N. Miyamura, S. Suzuki, eds., Yoshitomo Nara: the Complete Works, Volume 1: Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2011, p. 276 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Yoshitomo Nara rose to fame through his iconic depictions of childhood that inextricably brought Japanese Neo-Pop art to a global audience. Merging two inherently different cultures – the East and the West – through the marriage of their visual languages, Nara creates a highly recognisable style that displays multiple influences including manga and anime, as well as Disney and punk rock, to name a few. Constantly re-evaluating his most popular themes in new mediums, Nara’s oeuvre shows distinct reoccurring subjects. The image of the floppy-eared dog can be found in his drawings, prints, sculptures, paintings and even his children’s book The Lonesome Puppy. For Nara, dogs became symbolic of the loneliness he felt in his childhood. Growing up in the Japanese countryside, Nara frequently speaks of his feelings of abandonment and being left to his own devices from a young age. This led him to find solace in picture book characters that inevitably informed his pictorial style, rendering I Think Therefore I am... a Dog a pertinent work of solitude.

Property from the Estate of Dr. Fredric S. Brandt, Miami

Ο◆105

I Think, Therefore I Am...A Dog

2003
fiberglass, wood and metal.
175 x 130.8 x 93 cm (68 7/8 x 51 1/2 x 36 5/8 in.)
This work is number 6 from an edition of six.

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for £122,500

Contact Specialist
Henry Highley
Head of Sale
hhighley@phillips.com
+ 44 20 7318 4061

Contemporary Art Day Sale

London 15 October 2015 2pm