Published 14:19 IST, October 14th 2019
Japanese doodle in a east-village bar, New York, skyrockets in value
Niagra, a bar in New York's East Village area, is a place filled with artworks and doodles that have been drawn by various people coming in for a drink
- World News
- 3 min read
Niagra, a bar in New York's East Village area, is a place filled with artworks and doodles that have been drawn by various people coming in for a drink. However, reportedly a set of doodles it houses, may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The doodles are artwork by Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara, a frequent visitor of the East Village bar.
A doodle worth thousands of dollars
Nara's manager, Tim Blum, stated that he was with the Japanese artist when he made the doodle back in 2009. Tim added that both he and Yoshitomo were out to celebrate after a show they had put together and the doodles were a result of a few drinks they had downed that day. Blum also added that his memory was kind of hazy as no one thought that Nara's drawings would be remembered after a decade. He also said that Nara was arrested the same day after he was caught making a mural at a subway station in New York.
In addition to that, Tim stated that he remembered about how Nara used a felt-tip pen to draw a mural on a wall of the bar and it resulted in a dancing picture that had a classic Nara style to it.
Nara was on a drawing spree as two more figures were added with one being by the exit
The other mural was drawn beside the girl's washroom.
A similarity between Nara's doodles and paintings
Seeing the originality of Nara's work and keen art observers could see the stark similarity between the East Village bar doodles and his paintings. For instance, "One Foot in the Groove", which was sold for $1.16 million, contains a figure with hair, body structure, and appearance that was very similar to the painting on a wall of the bar.
Be that as it may, in contrast to Nara's artistic creations, the drawings at the East Village bar were exceptionally simple. They only got noticed by art fans after his painting "knife in the back' was sold for $24.9 million in an exhibition that took place in Hong Kong.
Niagra refused to release a statement on the concerned matter but while talking to an international media outlet, a representative of the East-village bar, stated that the doodles have been on the bare walls for a decade now and the now popular murals have been preserved by adding a thin sheet of plastic on the wall.
(With agency inputs)
Updated 23:45 IST, October 14th 2019