.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Created in 2012, Kill Fascists is a punchy, frank encapsulation of Yoshitomo Nara’s political and aesthetic beliefs. Using coloured pencils, Nara has drawn one of his instantly recognisable figures, a wide-eyed child—more mischievous nonconformist than angelic youngster—who holds a red guitar. Red, a colour associated with revolution and change, is a fitting choice given the message inscribed overhead: in block letters, Nara has written, ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’. The work pays homage to the American folk musician Woody Guthrie who, during the Second World War, stuck the same text onto his guitar. Guthrie, a staunch opponent to fascism, did not himself coin the phrase but borrowed the line from munitions factory workers who had written the message on their lathes. Just as these armaments would contribute to the war effort, so Guthrie believed that music could help destroy a fascist ideology.
Having always loved music, Nara frequently draws and paints his impish figures wielding guitars, singing in bands and jamming out; the girl in the present work reappears in a drawing dating from 2017. Born in 1959, Nara grew up during a period when Japan was saturated with Western pop culture. He would spend his nights listening to the radio, tuning into the the Far East Network, an American station which played both the news and Western music. Although his first English purchase was the Bee Gees’ single ‘Massachusetts’, Nara became obsessed with rock-and-roll and punk. The latter’s anti-establishment ethos would come to define his visual idiom, which draws from music, children’s book illustrations, Japanese theatrical masks, Edo-period ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and comic books designs. Although initially compared to Takashi Murakami and his Superflat movement—which was influenced by manga and anime—Nara’s art lacks the glossy, purposefully mass-produced cuteness of his contemporary’s art. Instead, he uses western images and commodities to grapple with the world’s complexities.
Skilfully rendered in coloured pencil, Kills Fascists is a tongue-in-cheek example of Nara’s drawings. The graphic arts constitute a significant part of the artist’s practice and were a major subject in his 2023 solo exhibition Yoshitomo Nara: All My Little Words at The Albertina Modern, Vienna. While enrolled at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Nara studied under A. R. Penck, who encouraged the young artist to pursue and merge his drawing and painting practices. Nara came to understand drawing not as preparatory future paintings or sculptures but rather as an individual, almost daily, act to be undertaken. He puts his pencils to paper, board, envelopes—everything and anything he can get his hands on. ‘When I’m working on drawings,’ he has reflected, ‘music just comes into my ear and goes straight out of my hand’ (Y. Nara quoted in N. Marino, ‘Yoshitomo Nara Paints What He Hears’, The New York Times, 24 July 2020).
Having always loved music, Nara frequently draws and paints his impish figures wielding guitars, singing in bands and jamming out; the girl in the present work reappears in a drawing dating from 2017. Born in 1959, Nara grew up during a period when Japan was saturated with Western pop culture. He would spend his nights listening to the radio, tuning into the the Far East Network, an American station which played both the news and Western music. Although his first English purchase was the Bee Gees’ single ‘Massachusetts’, Nara became obsessed with rock-and-roll and punk. The latter’s anti-establishment ethos would come to define his visual idiom, which draws from music, children’s book illustrations, Japanese theatrical masks, Edo-period ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and comic books designs. Although initially compared to Takashi Murakami and his Superflat movement—which was influenced by manga and anime—Nara’s art lacks the glossy, purposefully mass-produced cuteness of his contemporary’s art. Instead, he uses western images and commodities to grapple with the world’s complexities.
Skilfully rendered in coloured pencil, Kills Fascists is a tongue-in-cheek example of Nara’s drawings. The graphic arts constitute a significant part of the artist’s practice and were a major subject in his 2023 solo exhibition Yoshitomo Nara: All My Little Words at The Albertina Modern, Vienna. While enrolled at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Nara studied under A. R. Penck, who encouraged the young artist to pursue and merge his drawing and painting practices. Nara came to understand drawing not as preparatory future paintings or sculptures but rather as an individual, almost daily, act to be undertaken. He puts his pencils to paper, board, envelopes—everything and anything he can get his hands on. ‘When I’m working on drawings,’ he has reflected, ‘music just comes into my ear and goes straight out of my hand’ (Y. Nara quoted in N. Marino, ‘Yoshitomo Nara Paints What He Hears’, The New York Times, 24 July 2020).