Showrooms

Yoshitomo Nara: “Too Young to Die” Ashtray, 2002

Description
Ultra cool polychrome glazed ceramic ashtray. Some minimal glaze chips. Lauded by art critics, Nara's bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world. This is a limited edition work, published by Bozart in 2002 - they were a very special group of artists who produced toys in the 1990s-early aughts. Highly collectible!

ARTIST: Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959, Japan): Nara graduated from Aichi University of the Arts with a master’s degree in 1987 before settling in Cologne in 1994. This period of time was a pivotal influence on Nara, during which he began synthesizing Japanese and Western popular culture and when he found his style. Nara’s paintings enact a fleeting presence between the figure and the ground—a result of several layers of paint in subtly varied if subdued pigments that he applies throughout the painting process—in which the figure pops out of or floats in a space that appears to exist outside the constraints of time. Nara’s work spans painting, drawing, photography, large-scale installations, and sculpture in ceramic, bronze, and fiber-reinforced plastic. Influenced by popular music, memories of childhood, and current events, he filters these references through an exploratory realm of feelings, loneliness, and rebelliousness especially, which span autobiographical as well as broader cultural sensibilities.

Documentation:	Signed
Origin:	United States, Pennsylvania
Period:	2000-2021
Materials:	clay, glaze
Condition:	Good. a couple of small chips in glaze
Creation Date:	2002
Styles / Movements:	Contemporary, Outsider Art, Asian
Dealer Reference #:	BR48
Incollect Reference #:	626696