While Nara’s pieces might look like art from the world of manga, like his contemporary, Takashi Murukami (who I wrote about in this post), Nara maintains that his inspiration is completely different. “The truth is, I haven’t been influenced by manga even once. Over a long time, I created my art from a spiritual perspective. It’s full of religious and philosophical considerations,” he said in an interview some time ago.
Nara is mostly known for his paintings of children and animals, but apart from paintings he also works with sculptures, ceramics, prints and installations.
He was born in 1959 in the cold northern Aomori Prefecture of Japan only seven years after the end of the US occupation, and admits that he was highly influenced by the overseas culture. As a child, he had plenty of time home alone, and listened to foreign radio stations. He was exposed to western rock music, and was influenced by the films of Warner Bros. and Walt Disney, and by American comics. After obtaining an artistic education in Japan and in Germany, he started making his way in the world of contemporary art, and broke into popular consciousness through the Japanese pop movement in the 90s.
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