White Ghost
2010
White Ghost is a monumental outdoor sculpture by celebrated Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, depicting his signature childlike figure rendered in smooth white fiberglass reinforced plastic. The oversized figure gazes downward with a quietly brooding expression, embodying the tension between innocence and melancholy that defines Nara's iconic visual language. The work is sited in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, a free public collection featuring some of the most significant contemporary sculpture in America. The piece is a standout example of Nara's transition from painting and drawing into large scale three dimensional form.
- Medium
- Fiberglass reinforced plastic
- Dimensions
- Spotted At
- Public Space · Pappajohn Sculpture Park
Notes
Work is part of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Iowa. The Pappajohns donated 24 sculptures to the city's art museum in 2009 and have continued adding more. The collection is free and open to the public 24/7 in downtown Des Moines. Other artists represented in the collection include Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Indiana, Ai Weiwei, Willem de Kooning, Jaume Plensa, Richard Serra, Anthony Caro, Deborah Butterfield, Tony Smith, Barry Flanagan, Judith Shea, William Tucker, and Gary Hume.
Collectors of Yoshitomo Nara
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Artists in conversation
Takashi Murakami
Japanese · b. 1962
Murakami shares Nara's fusion of manga aesthetics, pop art sensibility, and Japanese cultural imagery into globally recognized fine art. Both artists blur the line between high art and commercial collectible culture through bold character driven imagery.
Kenny Scharf
American · b. 1958
Scharf deploys cartoonish figures and pop cultural references with an irreverent, rebellious energy that parallels Nara's punk inflected approach to figuration. Both artists draw heavily from youth subculture and use bold simplified forms to convey emotional provocation.
Mark Ryden
American · b. 1963
Ryden paints unsettling yet childlike figures with wide eyes and an eerie innocence that closely mirrors Nara's iconic defiant children. Both artists channel nostalgia and childhood imagery into work that carries a distinctly subversive emotional undercurrent.
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