A girl with large, colorful eyes stares straight at the viewer. As the title, Miss Spring, suggests, the girl is bathed in a warm light, and her tightly pursed lips seem to convey her determination to take a new step forward. This work was created in April 2012, around one year after the Great East Japan Earthquake. For the artist, who hails from the Tohoku region directly impacted by the quake and tsunami, the damage from the disaster was profound, and he had found himself unable to pick up a paintbrush for some time. However, with a solo exhibition looming—“Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me…,” which was scheduled to be held that summer at the Yokohama Museum of Art (and would later tour to two other venues)—he returned to his canvas and made this painting. While Nara does not use specific models for his paintings of people, this girl can be thought of as a kind of self-portrait of all those people, himself included, standing up and looking ahead after the experience of the disaster. (KATADA Yuko)
A girl with large, colorful eyes stares straight at the viewer. As the title, Miss Spring, suggests, the girl is bathed in a warm light, and her tightly pursed lips seem to convey her determination to take a new step forward. This work was created in April 2012, around one year after the Great East Japan Earthquake. For the artist, who hails from the Tohoku region directly impacted by the quake and tsunami, the damage from the disaster was profound, and he had found himself unable to pick up a paintbrush for some time. However, with a solo exhibition looming—“Nara Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me…,” which was scheduled to be held that summer at the Yokohama Museum of Art (and would later tour to two other venues)—he returned to his canvas and made this painting. While Nara does not use specific models for his paintings of people, this girl can be thought of as a kind of self-portrait of all those people, himself included, standing up and looking ahead after the experience of the disaster.
(KATADA Yuko)