Simon Fujiwara A Nude Who? (II), 2024

The painting, A Nude Who? (II) Is part of a larger project of Simon Fujiwara, featuring his original cartoon character Who the Bær as they explore different iconic artworks throughout art history. In this series Who is immersed in a world inspired by the nude paintings of the Chinese-born painter Sanyu (1895-1966).

Fujiwara’s work uses acrylic and pastel to outline the figures against a simple, nearly monochromatic, background, thereby also keeping his character Who the main focus. The figures appear in different poses and versions, their common characteristic of them being their oversized tongues and the various yellow liquids swirling around their bodies and leaving traces on them. In this work Bær takes a pose similarly to a nude painting of a nude made in the 1950s by Sanyu where the lower body of the figure is exaggerated, following a bottom-up perspective. Bær is seated, their legs take up most of the space whereas the face and body are only hinted behind the legs. The signature oversized tongue and honey drops make their appearance behind their knee. Fujiwara emphasizes the forms by giving them a strong outline and body contour using a similar color palette as this of Sanyu.