★奈良美智首次國際回顧展專刊
　　★收錄跨越36年240幅全彩作品照
 
　　此書為奈良美智2020年在洛杉磯郡立美術館舉辦的第一場海外回顧展專刊，不僅收錄奈良美智超過30年代表作如大眼人像和動物畫、最早期創作、旅居德國時在信封及紙板上的素描，還公開他工作室的樣貌。而他最近期作品包括大型青銅和陶瓷小雕像，以及2011年日本大地震後製作的肖像也網羅其中。
 
　　本專刊由深獲藝術設計界推崇的百年出版社Prestel出品，並邀請該展策展人吉竹美香，以及洛杉磯郡立美術館的館長Michael Govan聯手策畫，特別聚焦在奈良美智受「音樂」啓發的作品。音樂一向是滋養奈良美智作品重要媒介，他在創作時總是播放音樂，並將雙耳所聞轉化為視覺圖像。他也曾自述各種唱片封面設計為其藝術啟蒙。
 
　　專刊首度曝光他私藏數十年黑膠唱片封面，以及他獲專輯封面靈感寫下的「個人筆記」，讓讀者飽覽奈良美智的創作演化脈絡。
Follow the trajectory of Yoshitomo Nara, one of the most prominent contemporary artists, whose work has grown in complexity and nuance over the past three decades.

Thirty years after Yoshitomo Nara rocketed to fame with his Neo-Pop paintings of sinister childlike figures, the artist has deepened his practice. This book presents the full range of Nara's work. Along with his most recognizable pieces, such as his ceramic figurines and ubiquitous portraits of wide-eyed children, readers will discover his earliest works--illustrations on paper that reflect Nara's passion for punk and rock music and popular culture, as well as early versions of his figures, roughly painted on surfaces ranging from envelopes to cardboard. His most recent works are represented as well, including his impressive twenty-six-foot-high outdoor sculpture, Miss Forest, plus large-scale bronze and smaller ceramic works. These and other pieces celebrate Nara's Northern Japanese heritage and confront the 2011 earthquake that devastated Japan. Comparing and contrasting these pieces through Nara's distinctive musical lens, viewers will come to recognize an artist who has become more contemplative with age, and who has grown to be more in touch with his ancestry.

Published with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

吉竹美香（MIKA YOSHITAKE）

　　為洛杉磯獨立策展人，曾任華盛頓特區的赫須巨集博物館 （Hirshhorn Museum）和雕塑花園的策展人。 她策劃過許多戰後日本藝術的展覽，也是《草間彌生的無限鏡廳》（Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors）的作者。
 
　　MICHAEL GOVAN是洛杉磯郡立美術館館長。並曾任紐約古根漢美術館副館長，以及非營利組織迪亞藝術基金會（Dia Art Foundation）總監，在那裡他創立了美術館Dia：Beacon。
 
MIKA YOSHITAKE is a Los Angeles based independent curator and former curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. She has curated numerous exhibitions on postwar Japanese art and is the author of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (DelMonico Books Prestel).

MICHAEL GOVAN is the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to his work at LACMA, Govan served as the Deputy Director of the Guggenheim Museum as well as Director of Dia Art Foundation, where he founded Dia: Beacon.