The Only Magazine for Children's Art
Oct 29, 2026
A place of serenity and common connection
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is certainly having a moment. Once a lonely young boy living in isolated rural Aomori Prefecture, he began creating haunting but oddly charming images of defiant young girls in the 1980s, and by 2000 found his now iconic 'Knife Behind Back' painting selling for about $25 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong.
SFMOMA will present a major retrospective of his work in autumn of 2027; and in the meantime he opens a high-profile solo exhibit on November 5 at David Zwirner gallery in New York City (click here to read our recent tigernoodles feature story on it). As a companion to that show, he inaugurates the new West Lawn at DC's Hirshhorn Museum, one of the highlights of the institution's newly revitalized outdoor sculpture garden.
Hauntingly titled 'Sentinels of Stillness', the trio of sculpts - 'Long Tall Peace Sister' (2025), 'Smiling' (2025) and 'Tiny Bright Round Eyes' (2025) - represent enlarged interpretations of a clay head he molded in 2021. They invite immersion and contemplation, with Nara surely seeking to offer viewers a place of tranquility and calm in a current culture of sociopolitical division and vitriol.
Unsurprisingly, there is a particularly profound story behind their creation, as Nara was so deeply affected by the tragedy of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster, that he found himself apoplectically unable to paint. He then turned towards the much more primal and tactile act of molding clay with his hands. Yet it wasn't until 2020 that he envisioned the ultimate conclusion of that act, and by 2025 were born his large scale bronze and aluminum sculpts from those clay prototypes.
It's reasonable to point out that it is especially poignant for this brief exhibit, rooted in serenity and common connection, to be debuting in the nation's capital just days before the bitterly divisive midterm elections.
“We are honored to present ‘Sentinels of Stillness',” enthuses Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. “We expect Nara’s sculpture to inspire visitors to pay attention to the power of ancient art-making practices to foster human connection. Nara’s exhibition also initiates a Hirshhorn tradition: an exhibition series, commissioned each year, from a leading global artist for our West Lawn.
We couldn't think of a better excuse to switch off CNN.
Postscript: For anyone not able to view the Nara sculptures before they are removed on November 7, the newly reborn Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and Plaza makes for an inspiring visit all throughout the autumn season, when the humidity of the DC summer gives way to more temperate weather. In addition to existing masterpieces by Barbara Hepworth, Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, etc., there are newly acquired works on view by notable contemporary artists including Mark Grotjahn, Raven Halfmoon, playful provocateurs Elmgreen & Dragset, and even tigernoodles fave KAWS, fresh off his own SFMOMA career retrospective earlier this year.
