Christie’s will offer Yoshitomo Nara’s Haze Days (1998) at its 20th/21st century evening sale in London on October 15, with an estimate of £6.5 million–£8.5 million ($8.7 million–$11.4 million).
The large-scale painting comes to auction just weeks after the close of the artist’s retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery, his first UK institutional solo show and the largest ever staged in Europe. (Haze Days was not included in the Hayward’s exhibition.) Finished in 1998, during the final years of Nara’s time in Germany, the work is among the earliest examples of his mature style. Only 22 canvases over 150 centimeters in height were made between 1996 and 2000, making pieces of this scale and period rare.
Related Articles
Haze Days depicts a lone child in a pool, staring outward with a mix of defiance and vulnerability—a characteristic blend of punk-inflected rebellion and psychological unease that has defined Nara’s oeuvre.
The painting has an interesting auction history, and could serve as a bellwether for how much the market has adjusted in the last two or three years as galleries, collectors, and auction houses try to find their feet at the low interest buying frenzy of the years immediately following the Covid pandemic. It was consigned as Lot 12 at Sotheby’s “Now” sale in New York in 2023 with a low estimate of $18 million, but it was withdrawn before the auction.
The announcement follows a strong showing for the artist in Hong Kong. On September 28, Nara’s Can’t Wait ’til the Night Comes (2012) sold for HKD 79.9 million ($10.27 million) at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening Sale, against an estimate of HKD 65 million–85 million.
Together, the back-to-back offerings underscore continued demand for Nara’s paintings across global sale rooms, even as expectations adjust from last year’s loftier estimates.