Early Works
11 works
Yoshitomo Nara In The Floating World Set For Sale
Yoshitomo Nara
In The Floating World Set, 1999
About this work
Yoshitomo Nara's *In The Floating World Set* from 1999 represents a pivotal moment in the artist's career, created during a period when his visual language had reached full maturity following his formative years in Germany. This suite of works showcases Nara's signature imagery—solitary children rendered with disproportionately large heads and penetrating eyes that simultaneously convey innocence and unsettling defiance. The title itself references the ukiyo-e tradition of Japanese woodblock prints while subverting its historical associations, positioning these figures within a contemporary psychological landscape. Nara's subjects occupy an ambiguous emotional territory where vulnerability and rebellion coexist. Influenced by punk rock aesthetics and the artist's self-described sense of outsider identity, these characters refuse passive observation, instead meeting the viewer's gaze with expressions that oscillate between melancholy and quiet aggression. The deceptively simple rendering belies a sophisticated understanding of how childhood imagery can access universal feelings of alienation and resilience. Works from this late 1990s period hold particular significance for collectors, as they emerge from the years immediately preceding Nara's ascent to international prominence. The artist's market has demonstrated remarkable strength, with his pieces consistently achieving significant results at auction and maintaining sustained institutional interest. *In The Floating World Set* exemplifies the emotional complexity and visual directness that have made Nara one of the most influential figures in contemporary Japanese art. For acquisition inquiries, please contact Guy Hepner.
Price on Application
Auction History
In the Floating World (set of 16) · Yoshitomo Nara · Phillips · 2021-11 · $39,194
In the Floating World · Yoshitomo Nara · Christie's · 2025-11 · $33,359
In the Floating World (set of 16) · Yoshitomo Nara · Phillips · 2020-07 · $32,954
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About the Woodblock Prints Series
Overview
Yoshitomo Nara's woodblock prints bring his instantly recognisable cast of wide-eyed children into dialogue with one of Japan's oldest artistic traditions. Where the paintings and drawings channel punk energy and raw emotion, the woodblocks filter that same sensibility through the disciplined language of ukiyo-e — the "pictures of the floating world" that defined Japanese printmaking for centuries. The result is a body of work that feels at once ancient and defiantly contemporary. Guy Hepner offers woodblock prints from across Nara's career at our New York gallery.
Technique & Tradition
Traditional Japanese woodblock printing is a painstaking relief process: a design is transferred to a block, usually of cherry wood, and a carver chisels away everything that will not print, leaving the image raised in relief. Ink is applied to that raised surface and the sheet is pressed by hand, one colour and one block at a time. Nara embraces this labour-intensive craft, allowing the grain of the wood and the slight irregularities of hand-pressing to become part of the image rather than something to be hidden.
That embrace of tradition is also a form of subversion. In his celebrated In the Floating World project (1998–1999), Nara took famous historical ukiyo-e compositions — the courtesans and kabuki actors of masters such as Utamaro — and reworked them, inserting his own scowling, solitary figures into the genre's revered templates. It is an act of affectionate vandalism: honouring the tradition while running wild through it.
, and on to recent works such as Knife, Sprout In The Hand Mirror and This Machine Kills Fascists*. Across these pieces the recurring motifs are unmistakable — the confrontational stare, the small figure alone against an empty ground, the flashes of text and object that hint at music, protest and childhood defiance.
Issued in limited editions, these prints are among Nara's most collectible multiples, prized for the way they translate the emotional charge of his painting into the deliberate, tactile medium of the carved block.
Collecting Nara Woodblock Prints
Nara's woodblocks appeal to collectors drawn to the meeting point of contemporary art and traditional craft, and they sit naturally alongside his lithographs, editions and works on paper. Guy Hepner Gallery presents authenticated woodblock prints 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.