CAIRO - Pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, ‘cartoonish' lines with little or no background are the main motifs in his paintings being displayed at the Cairo Opera House. His characters, who are mainly children, appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, although they sometimes brandish weapons like knives and tools like saws. Their large eyes look annoyed, as if they've just been rudely awoken from a pleasant nap – or perhaps it could even be hate. "I have never thought why I draw children and animals. If I thought about it, I wouldn't find it so interesting. I don't paint to answer viewers' questions; rather, I just want to be appreciated," Yoshitomo Nara, a Japanese artist, told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. "I do not actively seek to hear other people's impressions and ideas about my works. As for the motifs of children, cats and dogs, I don't think any other artist before me has ever used these motifs so exclusively." His paintings are either coloured pencil on paper, coloured pencil on cardboard or acrylic on cardboard. He said that the way people understand his works depends on their life experiences and the languages they speak. Nara, born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan, first came to the fore of the art world during Japan's pop art movement in the 1990s. It seems that the ‘manga' and anime of his 1960s childhood are both clear influences on his style (which appears clearly in his exhibition's paintings) that relies heavily on large-eyed figures. But perhaps most significantly, Nara's upbringing in post-World War II Japan has affected his mindset and, subsequently, his artwork as well. He grew up at a time when Japan was experiencing an inundation of Western pop culture: such as comic books, Walt Disney animation and Western rock music. After completing his studies at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1993, Yoshitomo Nara moved to Cologne, where his paintings, drawings, three-dimensional works and installations, featuring children and animal motifs, met with high acclaim. He showed his significance as an artist in two solo exhibitions in Tokyo in 1995, where the audience were fascinated by the boldly deformed organic lines and delicate layers of colours of the exhibited works. Since moving back to Japan in 2002, he has held many exhibitions domestically and internationally, actively promoting his other works, which include picture books, product designs, CD jackets and other media. Nara's popularity in the late 1990s established the international reputation of this Japanese artist in the contemporary art world. Sulky-looking, cool-eyed children were features of his paintings. Nara, who embarked on his first-ever visit to Egypt about two weeks ago at the invitation of the Japan Foundation Cairo Office as a guest of honour at the 12th Cairo International Biennale, said he enjoyed the Biennale, especially meeting with artists from Egypt and other countries. The Cairo Biennial art exhibition is the oldest international show in North Africa. Works by nearly one hundred artists from 40 countries were displayed in the 12th Biennial Exhibition of Art on December 12, held in Cairo's Palais d'Art. Egypt's Amal Kenawy won the Grand Prize of LE100,000 for her work, ‘The Silence of the Lambs'. "I thought Amal's painting was marvellous. I also sensed some things in common between Japanese art, influenced by European art, and the collection in the Museum for Modern Egyptian Art," Nara explained. "I also enjoyed visiting the Pyramids and many other Egyptian antiquities, which I'd only previously seen in photographs. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude at being invited to the Biennale." ‘The World of Yoshitomo Nara' exhibition is being held at El-Bab Gallery, Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, Cairo Opera House. The exhibition, which runs until February 21, is open daily (except Mondays and Fridays) from 10am-2pm and from 5pm-9pm.
