![Miss Spring, 2012](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2020-09/EX8792_29_P-2012-002_0.jpg?itok=AXx_NBbg)
Miss Spring, 2012
Yoshitomo Nara, Miss Spring, 2012, Acrylic on canvas, 89⅜ × 71⅝ in. (227 × 182 cm), Collection of the Yokohama Museum of Art, © Yoshitomo Nara 2012, photo by Keizo Kioku, courtesy of the artist
While confronting the 2011 nuclear disaster, Nara made Miss Spring (2012), a portrait of a wide-eyed girl with a high forehead who stands against a cherry-blossom pink background and stares straight at the viewer, with prism-like teardrops glistening in her eyes. A symbol of hope, this portrait served as the cover image for Ryūichi Sakamoto’s No Nukes 2012: Guidebook for Our Future. Miss Spring was used as a powerful backdrop banner by the protest organizers during the demonstrations.