New Authentic Title: Banging the Drum This item is already out of print and is very valuable. Artist: Yoshitomo Nara Yoshitomo Nara, a Japanese artist born December 5, 1959, is known for his eclectic works, known for his cartoonish paintings of melancholic children and animals. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the late 1980s, drawing inspiration from both Eastern and Western cultures throughout his life. Nara's childhood was in post-war Japan, when exposure to Western pop culture such as manga, Disney animation, and pop music increased, and is often said to have had an early influence on Nara's work. Although he has always stated that he did not draw from Japanese manga, his distinctive large-eyed portraits have often prompted art critics to draw similarities between the two. Instead, he argues that he elevates his work to another spiritual level by combining innocent children with cynical expressions and incompatible objects (such as sharp knives) to reflect important issues of religion and philosophy. Yoshitomo Nara has many enthusiastic supporters, has held many solo exhibitions around the world, and held a major retrospective from 2003 to 2005, which toured many locations. Nara's works are held in many major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Museum of Art, Osaka. Title: Banging the Drum Yoshitomo Nara Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art Limited Edition Poster