.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'This was my epic, summing up all I was. And the spell of the dots and the mesh enfolded me in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power.' –Yayoi Kusama
Unveiling yet another retrospective later this year at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Yayoi Kusama’s iconic visual vernacular continues to enchant audiences with its striking aesthetics, intriguing psychological depths, and deep philosophical resonances. The infinite life force that Kusama harnesses to flourish on her more than half-century-long adventure traversing love and hardship, hope and ambivalence, is subtly veiled behind the stupendous surfaces filled with hypnotic dots and nets. As the artist once expressed, ‘This was my epic, summing up all I was. And the spell of the dots and the mesh enfolded me in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in L. Hoptman et al. (eds.), Yayoi Kusama, London 2000, p. 103)
Rendered in cobalt blue, Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue is not merely a timeless work that represents the artist's now-iconic theme, but perhaps the most surrealist iteration of it—with its tint reminiscent of Magritte’s nocturnal paintings like Le Seize Septembre (1956; Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Antwerp). Painted in 2005, Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue is intimately scaled yet hinting at bigger topic—prompting one to see life in a new way. Began to explore this subject since her childhood, Kusama’s meticulous painterly skill transforms this ordinary, humble object into something otherworldly and captivating. ‘ It seems that pumpkins do not inspire much respect, but I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form,’ the artist once mused over the subject. ‘What appealed to me most was the pumpkin’s generous unpretentiousness.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p. 75) Surrounded by a sea of net in triangle form, it is as if the pumpkin is an island in the middle of an ocean or a planet in the galaxy. Following the footsteps of her mentor, Georgia O’Keefe, Kusama employs natural, biomorphic forms to reconcile the inner self with the outer world—for Kusama, the pumpkin is a symbol of comfort and optimism and a self-portrait of herself. As a subject matter, pumpkin, tender to touch, also has rich references to the body; as the artist once expressed, ‘I love pumpkins for their humorous shape, their warmth, and their human quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in ‘Why Does Yayoi Kusama Love Pumpkins?’ , Phaidon Editors, 2017) Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue amplifies Kusama’s affinity—proving that anything we approach with affection and passion could turn into art—a Warholian gesture and an act of compassion.
Towering nearly two-meter tall, Kusama’s Infinity Nets (TWAHZN) (2006) subjugates the entire canvas in a lattice of glimmering gold loops and swirls. Visually breathtaking and psychologically charged, these countless loops of pigment create negative spaces around the saturated azure dots, forming an undulating net field that mesmerises the infinite expanse of ocean waves—a sight that imprinted in the artist’s mind when she first flew to Seattle in 1957. Conjuring up images of infinity, interconnection, and self-dissolution, the net is the first pattern Kusama adopted since 1958. The practice began as Kusama's fight with her mental condition, particularly hallucinations that fiercely threatened her psychological entity; ‘they began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe. I was always standing at the centre of the obsession, over the passionate accretion and repetition inside of me.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in Y. Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p.103) Kusama's use of metallic pigment lends Infinity Nets (TWAHZN) an air of ethereal light—with her technical dexterity of using acrylic, a fast-drying and water-soluble medium that Kusama transitioned to since the 1980s, the painting is texturally unique and awash with reflected luminaries.
In 1993, a year after Fruits (1992) was created, Kusama was selected to represent Japan for the first time at the Venice Biennale. Foretelling the first pinnacle of the artist’s career, Fruits unites Yayoi Kusama's celebrated laborious, monochromatic Nets composition with her unparalleled interrogation of figuration. Profuse with lustrous red and organic forms that are at once majestic and captivating, the delicately scaled canvas also evidenced the artist's newfound maturity on the subject matter that she has been exploring since the 1970s. Freeing from gravity, the fruits camouflaged in Kusama’s nets and dots are levitating and pulsating above the utensil, creating a sense of movement and energy, like dancers. Orchestrating the flow of energy and movement with her trademark motif, Kusama proposes an unorthodox way to perceive the world that is uniquely her own. Through conflating abstract forms with quotidian objects, Kusama’s Fruits creates a world of wonders in one of the most classical genres. Upon her return to Japan in 1973, Kusama started to develop prints that incorporated nets and dots as a scheme to illustrate different ordinary themes. Her highly stylised way of portraying still life and the arrangement of objects in the picture plane incidentally share a similar aesthetic with the Rinpa School, a historical school of Japanese painting dating back to the Edo period. Notably, Rinpa masters often depict their subjects without contours, a technique called mokkotsu ('boneless’) where the physicality of an entity can be traced only through colour instead of line. Such technique lends tactility to the objects while unfolding a realm of undefined space in between.
From pumpkin to fruits, Kusama explored new avenues for the classical genre and forged a peerless perspective on still life through her meticulous application of brushstrokes. Through the process of eliminating physical matter with ‘dots’ and ‘nets’, the artist constructs a concept of perpetual repetition and reproduction that she consistently adheres to. Rather than tracing the appearance of objects, Kusama's still life paintings are more of a capture of her innermost states—which coincides with her abstract infinite net. Returning to the natural state of the universe through the process of dissolving the self and object, Kusama creates a visual variation that is reminiscent of the brilliance of the universe or the origin of life.
Unveiling yet another retrospective later this year at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Yayoi Kusama’s iconic visual vernacular continues to enchant audiences with its striking aesthetics, intriguing psychological depths, and deep philosophical resonances. The infinite life force that Kusama harnesses to flourish on her more than half-century-long adventure traversing love and hardship, hope and ambivalence, is subtly veiled behind the stupendous surfaces filled with hypnotic dots and nets. As the artist once expressed, ‘This was my epic, summing up all I was. And the spell of the dots and the mesh enfolded me in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in L. Hoptman et al. (eds.), Yayoi Kusama, London 2000, p. 103)
Rendered in cobalt blue, Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue is not merely a timeless work that represents the artist's now-iconic theme, but perhaps the most surrealist iteration of it—with its tint reminiscent of Magritte’s nocturnal paintings like Le Seize Septembre (1956; Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Antwerp). Painted in 2005, Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue is intimately scaled yet hinting at bigger topic—prompting one to see life in a new way. Began to explore this subject since her childhood, Kusama’s meticulous painterly skill transforms this ordinary, humble object into something otherworldly and captivating. ‘ It seems that pumpkins do not inspire much respect, but I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form,’ the artist once mused over the subject. ‘What appealed to me most was the pumpkin’s generous unpretentiousness.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p. 75) Surrounded by a sea of net in triangle form, it is as if the pumpkin is an island in the middle of an ocean or a planet in the galaxy. Following the footsteps of her mentor, Georgia O’Keefe, Kusama employs natural, biomorphic forms to reconcile the inner self with the outer world—for Kusama, the pumpkin is a symbol of comfort and optimism and a self-portrait of herself. As a subject matter, pumpkin, tender to touch, also has rich references to the body; as the artist once expressed, ‘I love pumpkins for their humorous shape, their warmth, and their human quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in ‘Why Does Yayoi Kusama Love Pumpkins?’ , Phaidon Editors, 2017) Pumpkin (TOWHT) Blue amplifies Kusama’s affinity—proving that anything we approach with affection and passion could turn into art—a Warholian gesture and an act of compassion.
Towering nearly two-meter tall, Kusama’s Infinity Nets (TWAHZN) (2006) subjugates the entire canvas in a lattice of glimmering gold loops and swirls. Visually breathtaking and psychologically charged, these countless loops of pigment create negative spaces around the saturated azure dots, forming an undulating net field that mesmerises the infinite expanse of ocean waves—a sight that imprinted in the artist’s mind when she first flew to Seattle in 1957. Conjuring up images of infinity, interconnection, and self-dissolution, the net is the first pattern Kusama adopted since 1958. The practice began as Kusama's fight with her mental condition, particularly hallucinations that fiercely threatened her psychological entity; ‘they began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe. I was always standing at the centre of the obsession, over the passionate accretion and repetition inside of me.’ (Y. Kusama, quoted in Y. Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p.103) Kusama's use of metallic pigment lends Infinity Nets (TWAHZN) an air of ethereal light—with her technical dexterity of using acrylic, a fast-drying and water-soluble medium that Kusama transitioned to since the 1980s, the painting is texturally unique and awash with reflected luminaries.
In 1993, a year after Fruits (1992) was created, Kusama was selected to represent Japan for the first time at the Venice Biennale. Foretelling the first pinnacle of the artist’s career, Fruits unites Yayoi Kusama's celebrated laborious, monochromatic Nets composition with her unparalleled interrogation of figuration. Profuse with lustrous red and organic forms that are at once majestic and captivating, the delicately scaled canvas also evidenced the artist's newfound maturity on the subject matter that she has been exploring since the 1970s. Freeing from gravity, the fruits camouflaged in Kusama’s nets and dots are levitating and pulsating above the utensil, creating a sense of movement and energy, like dancers. Orchestrating the flow of energy and movement with her trademark motif, Kusama proposes an unorthodox way to perceive the world that is uniquely her own. Through conflating abstract forms with quotidian objects, Kusama’s Fruits creates a world of wonders in one of the most classical genres. Upon her return to Japan in 1973, Kusama started to develop prints that incorporated nets and dots as a scheme to illustrate different ordinary themes. Her highly stylised way of portraying still life and the arrangement of objects in the picture plane incidentally share a similar aesthetic with the Rinpa School, a historical school of Japanese painting dating back to the Edo period. Notably, Rinpa masters often depict their subjects without contours, a technique called mokkotsu ('boneless’) where the physicality of an entity can be traced only through colour instead of line. Such technique lends tactility to the objects while unfolding a realm of undefined space in between.
From pumpkin to fruits, Kusama explored new avenues for the classical genre and forged a peerless perspective on still life through her meticulous application of brushstrokes. Through the process of eliminating physical matter with ‘dots’ and ‘nets’, the artist constructs a concept of perpetual repetition and reproduction that she consistently adheres to. Rather than tracing the appearance of objects, Kusama's still life paintings are more of a capture of her innermost states—which coincides with her abstract infinite net. Returning to the natural state of the universe through the process of dissolving the self and object, Kusama creates a visual variation that is reminiscent of the brilliance of the universe or the origin of life.