5 legendary Japanese artists in Salcedo Auctions' new sale

In a first for the Philippines, a cross-generational lineup of Japanese artists grace Salcedo Auctions’ The Well-Appointed Life catalogue. 

It is, once again, a pioneering undertaking as the auction house responds to the shifts in the global art scene and the collecting market’s expanding tastes, reflecting the increasingly transnational lives of its high net worth clientele who are now looking at art outside of local borders in a bid to, as Salcedo Auctions chairman and chief specialist Richie Lerma puts it, “go beyond the parochial.” 

“This sale features works by some of the most significant Japanese art practitioners of our time -- Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Tsuguharu Fujita, Seiji Togo and the anonymous Backside Works -- who represent Japanese ‘soft power’ in defining the way the way the world sees and manifests itself,” he says.
 
“The influence and appeal of Japanese art on the international art stage is unmistakable. Beginning in the mid-19th century, its forms and colors shaped Western art movements, including Impressionism and Cubism,” Lerma adds. “In its current form and medium, Japanese art continues to impact visual culture.” 

Fujita and Togo (both born in the late 1800s) are both considered as pillars of the modernist movement that rattled Japan's traditionalists. Backside Works, Kusama and Nara, on the other hand, are the current renegades whose works reflect the buoyant new voice of Japanese contemporary art. 

An exciting newcomer, Backside Works is the handle of an anonymous artist with roots in street art and urban installations whose blend of Japanese subculture elements and activism has captivated an international following. Kusama and Nara, meanwhile, are continuing with a spectacular run, shattering auction records while enjoying critical acclaim. 

While stylistically different, there is that adorable quality in both Kusama and Nara’s works, making them popular beyond the high-brow walls of galleries and institutions. Which is remarkable given the traumatic roots of Kusama’s dots and the isolated childhood which shaped Nara’s oeuvre. 

Born in rural Japan to working-class parents as the youngest of three boys, Nara usually played alone and became more comfortable communicating with animals than with humans. He often looked at picture books and fairy tales instead of comics, and by age 9, he started listening to Western music, blasted from the radio station in a nearby US military base. The sum of all his childhood experiences, plus the distinctive mood of his youth are the foundations of Nara’s art. 

Some of Nara’s earlier works from the early to mid-80s reveal his short-lived preoccupation with neo-expressionism. The years that followed showed his shift toward Japan’s Superflat Movement and a distillation to a softer palette. Not long after, Nara’s iconic big-eyed girls emerged and captivated the art world. One of them would make Nara the highest-valued Japanese artist in 2019, when his painting titled “Knife Against Back” sold for about US$25,000,000 at a Hong Kong auction.

Kusama’s works have been selling in the millions of dollars as well in recent years. There is also more interest in her art of late, with back-to-back shows in international venues as well as a high profile collaboration with Louis Vuitton. It is only fitting, given the the trauma she experienced from an abusive mother (who disapproved of her art) and the hardships that Kusama faced during her early years of practice in New York.

She grew up in an unstable family setting, with a philandering father and a mother who vented her anger on young Kusama. Apart from that, she suffered from hallucinations, like the talking peonies in her parents’ farm and the pumpkins that closed in on her. There were flashing lights as well, or colorful auras that surrounded objects, represented by the dots that have become Kusama’s signature gestures. 

Though she has lived in a hospital for the mentally ill since 1977, Kusama continues to paint and create works, each completed canvas or sculpture devoid of the turbulence associated with its source forms, but instead symbolizing Kusama’s victory over adversity. 

‘The Well-Appointed Life’ live and online auction will take place on Saturday, March 9, starting at 2 p.m. The online catalogue is available at salcedoauctions.com; in-person preview runs until Friday at NEX Tower, 6786 Ayala Avenue, Makati City, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.