Simon Fujiwara Who’s Iconic? (Spanish Identity), 2022

Who’s Iconic? (Spanish Identity) is part of a cycle of works by Simon Fujiwara remixing iconic, historically significant works of art through the portraying of Who the Baer, the artist’s original cartoon character.

In this charcoal, pastel and ink drawing on paper, we recognize Who, reduced to very abstracted features: round simple eyes, pointed nose and flappy ears. Slight pans of colors – red, yellow, orange and blue – give to Who its life and vibrancy. Despite the character’s childlike and rather congenial appearance, Who seems troubled.

Fujiwara portrays Who between abstraction and figuration. The linear forms, the light swathes of vibrant primary colors and the childlike simplicity of the work echo Joan Miro’s œuvre. Miro, a prominent figure of modernism and surrealism, sought his pictorial vocabulary in primitive sources, in the prehistoric cave paintings of his native Spain, or in visions triggered by self-starvation. Alone with his thoughts, Who appears to be depicted in the lonesome anxiety of his quest for identity.