Lithographs
58 works
Yoshitomo Nara On the F Word For Sale
Yoshitomo Nara
On the F Word, 2002
Intaglio on paper
30 3/10 × 24 × 1 3/5 in | 77 × 61 × 4 cm
About this work
Yoshitomo Nara stands as one of the most influential figures to emerge from Japan's Neo-Pop movement, his work occupying a critical position between the country's postwar cultural shifts and contemporary global art discourse. Alongside his Superflat contemporaries, Nara has reshaped how Eastern and Western audiences engage with character-based imagery, though his practice remains distinctly personal, rooted in an emotional vocabulary that draws from punk rock, childhood memory, and a quiet sense of rebellion. On the F-Word, executed in 2002, belongs to a particularly productive period in Nara's career when his signature children had fully evolved into complex psychological portraits. The intaglio technique—a printmaking process requiring the artist to incise directly into the plate—lends this work a tactile intimacy often absent from his offset editions. The title itself carries Nara's characteristic blend of defiance and ambiguity, suggesting both profanity and something left deliberately unspoken, a tension that animates much of his output from this era. This impression is an Artist's Proof, held apart from the numbered edition of 35, making it among the most desirable forms in which to acquire the work. Artist's Proofs traditionally remain with the artist or enter collections through direct channels, lending them additional significance within a print's hierarchy. Nara's works have demonstrated consistent strength at auction, with his prints and multiples commanding increasing attention from collectors seeking entry points into an oeuvre whose paintings now routinely achieve eight-figure results. For acquisition inquiries, please contact Guy Hepner.
Price on Application
Auction History
Twelve works: (i) Y.N. (Self-Portrait); (ii) Green Eyes; (iii) Night Walker; (iv) On the F-word; (v) Rainy Day; (vi) Become to Thinker; (vii) Stay Good; (viii) Straight Jacket; (ix) Spockie; (x) Haze Day; (xi) Running Nose Brothers; (xii) Top of the World · Yoshitomo Nara · Phillips · 2021-06 · $278,577
Running Nose Brothers; Y.N. (Self -Portrait); Green Eyes; Night Walker; On the F-word; Rainy Day; Stay Good; Straight Jacket; Spockie; Haze Day; Top of the World; & Become to Thinker · Yoshitomo Nara · Christie's · 2015-05 · $72,551
On the F-Word · Yoshitomo Nara · Christie's · 2020-12 · $47,500
On the F-Word · Yoshitomo Nara · Sotheby's · 2026-02 · $35,840
More from this series
Yoshitomo Nara
Flashlight Girl
2001
Yoshitomo Nara
Full Moon Night
1999
Yoshitomo Nara
Girl In A Box
2001
Yoshitomo Nara
Little Tannenbaum
1999
Yoshitomo Nara
Mirror
1999
Yoshitomo Nara
No Fun
1997
Yoshitomo Nara
No Nukes Love And Peace
1999
Yoshitomo Nara
Peace Flag
2001
Yoshitomo Nara
Punk Ebizo
1998
Yoshitomo Nara
What's Going On
1999
Related Reading
More series by Yoshitomo Nara
About the Early Works Series
Overview
Yoshitomo Nara's early works capture the moment his visual language crystallised into one of the most recognisable in contemporary art. Produced largely between the late 1990s and early 2000s, these prints and editions introduce the lone, big-headed child — half innocent, half insurgent — that would come to define his practice. Raw, direct and steeped in the punk and folk music of his youth, they remain among the most sought-after entry points into Nara's world. Guy Hepner presents early Nara works at our New York gallery.
A Language Taking Shape
Nara spent formative years studying and working in Germany, and the emotional economy of these early pieces reflects that period of solitude and self-definition. Works such as No Fun (1997) and Punk Ebizo (1998) wear their attitude openly, while the 1999 group — Full Moon Night, Little Tannenbaum, Mirror, No Nukes Love And Peace and What's Going On — shows the artist refining a vocabulary of simplified line, flattened colour and a single confrontational figure set against an empty ground.
The media are as varied as the moods: alongside conventional editions sit experiments such as the What's Going On Fuji Xerox copy and the Peace Flag silkscreen printed on a cotton flag (2001), evidence of an artist testing how his imagery behaves across surfaces and formats.
Recurring Themes
Even at this early stage the essential Nara tensions are present: sweetness laced with defiance, vulnerability edged with menace. Titles like No Nukes Love And Peace and Peace Flag signal the quiet activism that runs through his career, while Flashlight Girl and Girl In A Box (2001) place his solitary children in charged, ambiguous situations. These works reward close looking — the more innocent the face, the more complicated the feeling behind it.
Collecting Early Nara
Early works are prized by collectors for documenting the origin of Nara's mature style, and they sit naturally alongside his later lithographs, woodblock prints and editions. Guy Hepner Gallery offers authenticated early Nara works with full provenance documentation. Contact our New York team to discuss current availability and acquisition.
About Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959, Hirosaki, Japan) stands as one of the most influential figures in contemporary Japanese art, whose deceptively simple portraits of wide-eyed children—at once innocent and subversively defiant—have become icons of the Neo-Pop movement. Trained in Düsseldorf and deeply influenced by punk rock and anime culture, Nara creates works that resonate across cultural boundaries, commanding an international collector base and record-breaking auction results. His paintings, drawings, and sculptures are held in major museum collections worldwide, cementing his position as a defining voice in 21st-century art.