Accompanies the first UK solo exhibition at a public institution by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Spanning four decades of the artist’s work, it offers readers a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the personal and creative world of this internationally acclaimed artist. Yoshitomo Nara primarily identifies as a painter while working across a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, collage, sculpture, installation and materials including found objects, cardboard, wood, plaster, textile, ceramic and fibreglass.

He is widely known for his bold images of children with large heads and wide eyes that challenge the viewers with their direct gaze and defiant stance. These captivating yet ominous characters are part of a wider visual vocabulary established by Nara to explore and communicate themes of home, isolation, resilience, belonging, regeneration, hope and freedom. Organised thematically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and breadth of Nara’s artistic expression.

It conveys Nara’s singular aesthetic drawn from his formative experiences in Japan and his time in Germany, as well as his ongoing environmental and societal concerns, which are deeply rooted in nature and the communities of Japan’s northern Tohoku region, where he grew up. Memories as a continuous flow runs through Nara’s work. This is in parallel with the inspiration he takes from popular music, which he has been listening to since childhood – folk songs by American singer-songwriters featuring antiwar messages, melancholic blues and, later, glam rock, punk and new wave.

The Hayward Gallery presentation is an expanded version of the touring exhibition from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. It features a group of Nara’s most recent paintings, including several new works.