Early Works
11 works
Yoshitomo Nara Knife For Sale
Yoshitomo Nara
Knife, 2022
About this work
Yoshitomo Nara's *Knife* (2022) exemplifies the Japanese artist's singular ability to merge childhood innocence with an undercurrent of rebellion and emotional complexity. The work features Nara's signature wide-eyed child figure, rendered with the deceptively simple line work that has become synonymous with his practice over three decades. Here, the juxtaposition of youthful vulnerability and implied aggression creates the psychological tension that collectors and institutions worldwide have come to prize in his oeuvre. Rooted in Nara's formative years spent immersed in punk rock and new wave music during his studies in Germany, the defiant spirit of his subjects reflects a broader commentary on alienation, resistance, and the complexities of human emotion. The knife motif, recurring throughout his career, transforms an object of potential menace into something ambiguous—at once protective and threatening, a symbol of the quiet strength found in apparent fragility. As one of the most sought-after contemporary artists working today, Nara's works command significant attention at auction and remain central to distinguished private collections and major museum holdings, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. *Knife* represents a mature continuation of themes that have defined his artistic identity while demonstrating the refined technique of his recent practice. For acquisition inquiries regarding this work by Yoshitomo Nara, please contact Guy Hepner.
Price on Application
Auction History
Slash with a Knife (In the Floating World) · Yoshitomo Nara · Christie's · 2020-07 · $16,126
Slash with a Knife, from In the Floating World · Yoshitomo Nara · Christie's · 2021-03 · $10,000
Slash with a Knife from the series In the Floating World · Yoshitomo Nara · Phillips · 2022-04 · $7,313
Slash with a Knife (In the Floating World) · Yoshitomo Nara · China Guardian · 2022-10 · $5,417
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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.