Masao Nakahara valuation
Japanese painter in Düsseldorf of hazy, dreamlike scenes of ageless figures, cherry trees and water, about memory and impermanence.
Masao Nakahara was born in Saitama, Japan, in 1956.
What a work by Masao Nakahara is worth
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Bio
Masao Nakahara was born in Saitama, Japan, in 1956. He studied at the Nihon Art School in Tokyo, graduating in 1980, and at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, then moved to Düsseldorf in the early 1980s and studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1983 to 1988. He lives and works in Düsseldorf. After a break of some thirty years, during which he worked as a translator, he returned to view in 2021, when his long-time friend Yoshitomo Nara invited him into tomodachi to: With Friends at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. His paintings and sculptures set innocent, ageless figures in hazy dreamscapes, drifting downstream in a paddleboat, gazing out to sea or resting in fields, and blend childhood memories with present-day images. Impermanence, the Japanese idea of mono no aware, runs through the work, often through the cherry tree, and he draws on Japanese and German folklore and on painters such as Georges Rouault, Maurice Utrillo and Sekine Shōji. Solo exhibitions include Daydreams and Memories at Althuis Hofland in Amsterdam in 2022 and Floating Through Time at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London in 2025.
His works are paintings and sculptures. Check a painting's surface for cracking and scuffs and a sculpture for chips and losses, and keep the title, the date and the gallery invoice with the work. A buyer will also want to know where it has been exhibited.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
