Yoshitomo Nara’s children don’t seem very happy. The 65-year-old Japanese ­artist has been painting them since ­adolescence: small bodies with big heads, soft cheeks and hard stares. What are they thinking, these ­little ones? Their fixed expressions are less likely to suggest innocence than malice – or misery.

Sometimes a slogan in English, daubed by Nara onto an otherwise plain background, might offer a clue. “Stop the Bombs,” says one, above a scrappy figure who eye-balls the viewer furiously, two small fangs emerging from the ­corners of her downturned mouth. “Don’t Waste Another Day,” implores another, over a kneeling figure, her legs tucked beneath her in supplicatory seiza pose.

Whatever it means, during the past few decades, Nara’s cartoonish art has become serious business: in 2

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