#1. INFINITY-NETS (OQABT), 2007

Est-Ouest Auctions Hong-Kong: 28 May 2023
Estimated: USD 10,000,000 – 12,000,000
USD 10,707,500

NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST

#2. Untitled (Nets), 1959

Phillips New-York: 18 May 2022
Estimated: USD 5,000,000 – 7,000,000
USD 10,496,000

Yayoi Kusama – 20th Century & Contempora… Lot 11 May 2022 | Phillips

Untitled (Nets), 1959
Oil on canvas
130.8×116.5 cm (51.5×46 inches)

#3. A FLOWER, 2014

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 November 2023
Estimated: HKD 65,000,000 – 85,000,000
HKD 78,125,000 / USD 10,029,987

21391-yayoi-kusama-a-flower (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
A FLOWER, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
162.2 x 162.2 cm. (63 7/8 x 63 7/8 inches.)
titled in Japanese; signed, titled and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2014 A FLOWER’ (on the reverse)

USD 10 million

#4. Pumpkin (LPASG), 2013

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2021
Estimated: HKD 45,000,000 – 65,000,000
HKD 62,540,000 / USD 8,026,799

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (LPASG), 2013
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 130.3 cm (51.2 x 51.2 inches)

#5. Pumpkin (L), 2014

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
HKD 62,638,000 / USD 7,979,465

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | Pumpkin (L) 南瓜（L） | 50th Anniversary Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Pumpkin (L), 2014
Bronze
241 x 235 x 235 cm (94 7/8 x 92 1/2 x 92 1/2 inches)
Incised Yayoi Kusama
This work is number 8 from an edition of 8, plus 2 artist’s proofs

#6. Interminable Net #4, 1959

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2019
Estimated: HKD 50,000,000 – 70,000,000
HKD 62,433,000 / USD 7,953,526

(#1144) KUSAMA YAYOI | Interminable Net #4 (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Interminable Net #4, 1959
Oil on canvas
143.5 x 108.6 cm (54 1/2 x 42 3/4 inches)
Signed in English, titled and dated 1959 on the reverse

#7. Flowers, 2015

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 May 2023
Estimated: HKD 32,000,000 -55,000,000
HKD 58,455,000 / USD 7,463,651

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Flowers, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 97 cm (51 1/3 x 38 1/5 inches)
Signed, titled and dated ‘FLOWERS 2015 YAYOI KUSAMA’ (on the reverse)

#8. Pumpkin, 1995

Phillips Hong-Kong: 30 March 2023
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
HKD 56,110,000 / USD 7,147,862

Yayoi Kusama – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 10 March 2023 | Phillips

#9. PUMPKIN, 2017

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 1 December 2021
Estimated: HKD 28,000,000 – 38,000,000
HKD 55,450,000 / USD 7,114,766

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
PUMPKIN, 2017
Fiberglass-reinforced plastic and urethane paint sculpture in two parts
215 (H) x 180 x 180 cm (84 5/8 x 70 7/8 x 70 7/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2017’ (on the side)

#10. White No. 28, 1960

Christie’s New-York: 12 November 2014
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 7,109,000

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) (christies.com)

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
White No. 28, 1960
Oil on canvas
147.6 x 111.1 cm (58 1/8 x 43 3/4 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 1960’ (lower left)

#11. No. Red B, 1960

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 4 October 2015
Estimated: HKD 30,000,000 – 40,000,000
HKD 54,520,000 / USD 7,034,876

(#1062) Kusama Yayoi (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
No. Red B, 1960
Oil on canvas
175.5 x 132.8 cm (69.1 x 52.3 inches)
Signed and titled in English and dated 1960 on the reverse

#12. A-Pumpkin (BAGN8), 2011

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 55,000,000
HKD 55,169,500 / USD 7,028,051

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) | 50th Anniversary Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
A-Pumpkin (BAGN8), 2011
Acrylic on canvas
162×130 cm (63 3/4 x 51 1/8 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2011 on the reverse

#13. Pumpkin (TWPOT), 2010

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2019
Estimated: HKD 12,000,000 – 22,000,000
HKD 54,460,000 / USD 6,937,820

(#1138) KUSAMA YAYOI | Pumpkin (TWPOT) (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (TWPOT), 2010
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 162.5 cm (51 1/8 x 64 inches)
Signed in English, titled and dated 2010 on the reverse

#14. Pumpkin, 2022

Christie’s New-York: 21 November 2024
Estimated: USD 6,000,000 – 8,000,000
USD 6,826,000

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2022
Fiberglass reinforced plastic and urethane paint, in three parts
245x260x260 cm (96 1/2 x 102 x 102 inches)
Signed and dated ‘Yayoi Kusama 2022’ (on the side)

#15. Infinity Nets (TWHOQ), 2006

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2022
Estimated: HKD 28,000,000 – 38,000,000
HKD 53,250,000 / USD 6,822,549

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Infinity Nets (TWHOQ), 2006
Acrylic on canvas (triptych)
Each: 194 x 130.3 cm (76 3/8 x 51 1/4 inches) (3)
Overall: 194 x 390.9 cm (76 3/8 x 153 7/8 inches)

#16. Pumpkin (M), 2014

Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 3,500,000 – 7,500,000
USD 6,529,100

Pumpkin (M) | The Now Evening Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Pumpkin (M), 2014
Bronze
187x182x182 cm (73 ⅝ x 71 ⅝ x 71 ⅝ inches)
Incised Yayoi Kusama
The present work is number 8 from an edition of 8

#17. A-PUMPKIN SKLO, 2013

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 23 May 2021
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
HKD 50,650,000 / USD 6,522,775

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), A-PUMPKIN SKLO | Christie’s (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
A-PUMPKIN SKLO, 2013
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 162 cm (51.2 x 63.7 inches)

#18. Pumpkin, 1990

Ravenel Taipei: 2 June 2019
Estimated: TWD 46,000,000 – 55,000,000
TWD 198,560,000 / USD 6,283,544

Ravenel | Yayoi KUSAMA《Pumpkin》 Ravenel Spring Auction 2019 Taipei Lot 117

YAYOI KUSAMA (Japanese, 1929)
Pumpkin, 1990
Acrylic on canvas
162 x 130.3 cm
Signed on the reverse Yayoi Kusama in English, titled Pumpkin in Japanese and dated 1990

#19. Pumpkin, 2013

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 May 2024
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
HKD 48,775,000 / USD 6,244,399

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin | Christie’s (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2013
Urethane on Fiber Reinforced Plastics, sculpture
205 (H) x 210 x 210 cm (80 3/4 x 82 5/8 x 82 5/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2013’ (on the side)

#20. GOLD-INFINITY-NETS, 2015

China Guardian HK: 9 October 2022
Estimated: HKD 12,000,000 – 22,000,000
HKD 48,630,000 / USD 6,191,141

Auction | China Guardian (HK) Auctions Co., Ltd. (cguardian.com.hk)

YAYOI KUSAMA
GOLD-INFINITY-NETS, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
145.5 x 145.5 cm (57 1/4 x 57 1/4 inches)
Signed, titled and dated on reverse

#21. PUMPKIN [FBAN], 2013

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 November 2023
Estimated: HKD 38,000,000 – 55,000,000
HKD 46,355,000 / USD 5,951,233

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), PUMPKIN [FBAN] | Christie’s (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
PUMPKIN [FBAN], 2013
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 161.5 cm (51 1/4 x 63 1/2 inches)
Signed, titled and dated ‘FBAN PUMPKIN YAYOI KUSAMA 2013’ (on the reverse)

#22. INFINITY, 1995

Bonhams Hong-Kong: 25 May 2024
Estimate on Request
HKD 46,434,000 / USD 5,946,977

Bonhams : Yayoi Kusama (B.1929) INFINITY

#25. A-Pumpkin (OTRSSA), 2014

Seoul Auction: 29 November 2022
Estimated: KRW 8,000,000,000 – 18,000,000,000
KRW 7,575,600,000 / USD 5,804,970

YAYOI KUSAMA
A-Pumpkin (OTRSSA), 2014
Acrylic on canvas
112 x 145.5 cm (44.1 x 57.3 inches)

#27. Untitled, 1972

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 30 September 2017
Estimated: HKD 32,000,000 – 45,000,000
HKD 42,287,500 / USD 5,413,395

(#1067) Kusama Yayoi

YAYOI KUSAMA
Untitled, 1972
Oil on canvas
106.7 x 91.8 cm (42 x 36 1/8 inches)
Signed in English and dated 1972 on the reverse, framed

#28. Portrait, 2015

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2024
Estimated: HKD 38,000,000 – 48,000,000
HKD 41,590,000 / USD 5,317,054

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | Portrait 肖像 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2024 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Portrait, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
146 x 112.8 cm (57 1/2 x 44 3/8 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2015 on the reverse

#29. Lake Michigan, 1960

#30. Pumpkin, 1981

Seoul Auction: 23 November 2021
Estimate on Request
KRW 6,267,500,000 / USD 5,263,746

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1981
Acrylic on canvas
116.5 x 91 cm (45.9 x 35.8 inches)
Signed, titled and dated on the canvas stretcher bar

#31. Pumpkin, 2000

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 May 2023
Estimated: HKD 28,000,000 – 38,000,000
HKD 40,305,000 / USD 5,145,407

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin | Christie’s (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2000
Acrylic on canvas
73 x 90.8 cm (28 3/4 x 35 3/4 in)
Titled in Japanese, signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2000’ (on the reverse)

#32. Pumpkin, 2010

Ravenel Taiwan: 5 December 2021
Estimated: TWD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
TWD 141,440,000 / USD 5,102,453

Ravenel | Yayoi KUSAMA《Pumpkin》 Ravenel Autumn Auction 2021 Taipei Lot 226

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 2010
Urethane paint on fiberglass reinforced plastic
120(L) x 120(W) x 125(H) cm
Signed Yayoi Kusama in English and dated 2010

#33. Starry Pumpkin Gold, 2014

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 25 May 2022
Estimated: HKD 20,000,000 – 30,000,000
HKD 40,050,000 / USD 5,101,976

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Starry Pumpkin Gold, 2014
Fiberglass-reinforced plastic and tile sculpture
185 (H) x 214 x 214 cm (72.9 x 84.2 x 84.2 inches)

USD 5 million

#37. Pumpkin, 2019

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2024
Estimated: HKD 28,000,000 – 38,000,000
HKD 36,145,000 / USD 4,620,941

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | Pumpkin 南瓜 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2024 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2019
Urethane on fiberglass reinforced plastic
120x138x138 cm (47 1/4 x 54 3/8 x 54 3/8 inches)
Signed and dated 2019

USD 4 million

#53. Pumpkin (S), 2014

Sotheby’s London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 2,400,000 – 4,000,000
GBP 3,073,000 / USD 3,752,595

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Pumpkin (S), 2014
Bronze
108x114x114 cm (42 1/2 x 44 7/8 x 44 7/8 inches)
Incised with the artist’s signature (near the base)
This work is number 1 from an edition of 8 plus 2 artist’s proofs

#55. Pumpkin, 2009

Christie’s London: 30 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
GBP 2,662,500 / USD 3,675,963

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929), Pumpkin | Christie’s (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2009
Painted fiberglass reinforced plastic
122x129x129 cm (48 x 50 3/4 x 50 3/4 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2009’ (on the side)

Early Infinity Nets

Untitled (Nets), 1959

Phillips New-York: 18 May 2022
Estimated: USD 5,000,000 – 7,000,000
USD 10,496,000

Yayoi Kusama – 20th Century & Contempora… Lot 11 May 2022 | Phillips

Untitled (Nets), 1959
Oil on canvas
130.8×116.5 cm (51.5×46 inches)

Painted in 1959, Yayoi Kusama’s Untitled (Nets) belongs to the artist’s most coveted and renowned early series of white Infinity Net paintings. Teetering between the singular and infinite, the canvas surface is veiled with an intricate lattice field of small arcs and loops that appears to gently pulse before the viewer’s eyes. Upon a closer look, smooth strokes yield to swells of impasto, their individual renderings infinitely multiplying with poetic gravitas. Untitled (Nets) marks a pivotal moment in the history of post-war abstraction, reflecting the liminal space between the painterly lush of Abstract Expressionism and the reductive aesthetic of Minimalism in which Kusama established her originality within the avant-garde.

Interminable Net #4, 1959

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2019
Estimated: HKD 50,000,000 – 70,000,000
HKD 62,433,000 / USD 7,953,526

(#1144) KUSAMA YAYOI | Interminable Net #4 (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Interminable Net #4, 1959
Oil on canvas
143.5 x 108.6 cm (54 1/2 x 42 3/4 inches)
Signed in English, titled and dated 1959 on the reverse

The stark monochrome austerity of the snow-white Interminable Net #4 from 1959 evinces a singularly breath-taking visual and visceral dynamism – a quaking shudder that ripped through the New York and European art scenes six decades ago. Standing before us in the present day, the work – having been kept in a private collection for decades – glows bright with a pristine white-ness hitherto unseen in white nets from this early period of Kusama’s career and retains all of the potent immediacy and electrically elegant splendor that defines her most rarefied series of work. The piece bears stellar provenance, being originally in the collection of French-born American artist Arman, the result of an artist work exchange. Interminable Net #4 then came into the present private collection via the Fuji TV Gallery. As one of the earliest nets that the artist ever created, Interminable Net #4 is an extremely rare and sublime paradigm of the most radical, transformative and accomplished period of Kusama’s artistic development.

White No. 28, 1960

Christie’s New-York: 12 November 2014
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 7,109,000

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) (christies.com)

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
White No. 28, 1960
Oil on canvas
147.6 x 111.1 cm (58 1/8 x 43 3/4 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 1960’ (lower left)

Veiled in a delicate lattice of small loops and curls, Yayoi Kusama’s White No. 28 enthralls with its ethereal atmosphere of poetic splendor. Soft white swoops and coils blanket the canvas in a shimmering, gauzelike web that is at once engulfing and mesmerizing, and the painting’s intricacy of detail beckons us closer. Across the painting’s surface, thick crests of impasto peak and then give way to smooth circlets, rising and falling in rhythmic swells and creating the impression of lace floating in calming ocean waves. Mirroring the quiet repetition that went into its making, White No. 28 stimulates introspection and transcendence, and lulls its viewers into a meditative state. With scalloped curves that spread across the canvas in rippling arcs, White No. 28 is emblematic of Kusama’s iconic Infinity Nets paintings, and as a part of her psychological and “feminine”-coded practice it foreshadows many of the developments that would follow shortly thereafter in feminist, performance and post-Minimalist art. Although Kusama returned to Japan after spending 10 years in New York and has remained there since, her time in New York was one of the most defining periods in her career, which, while brief, saw her create a highly influential body of work that would change the course of art forever.

No. Red B, 1960

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 4 October 2015
Estimated: HKD 30,000,000 – 40,000,000
HKD 54,520,000 / USD 7,034,876

(#1062) Kusama Yayoi (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
No. Red B, 1960
Oil on canvas
175.5 x 132.8 cm (69.1 x 52.3 inches)
Signed and titled in English and dated 1960 on the reverse

No. Red B is the most important, largest and earliest iterations of the red Infinity Nets series still in private hands to come to auction in over twenty years.  The present lot stands at over 1.7 metres, and is larger and taller than a comparable 1961 No. H. Red collected by the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Kusama’s No. Red B  was painted in the crucial year of 1960, which marked the second year the artist arrived in New York, and according to existing literature records, the first year that she rendered Infinity Nets works in red. Presented in the landmark exhibition Yayoi Kusama at the Gres Gallery (the artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington D.C. and the fourth in the U.S.), No. Red B charts the birth of what is undoubtedly one of the most important pieces from Kusama’s most recognisable series, the Infinity Nets, and is also emblematic of her artistic creations in the late forties to fifties. It is an historically vital painting that documented a nascent psychological curtain that captured her emotions from the first three decades of her life, simultaneously foreshadowing the successful career she would achieve in present day.

YAYOI KUSAMA AT HER NEW YORK STUDIO, 1961. IMAGE COURTESY YAYOI KUSMA INC. © YAYOI KUSAMA

Beneath such a singular aesthetic of epic proportions is a profoundly personal and fragile core. Diagnosed with an obsessional neurosis, Kusama used her art to “self-obliterate” hallucinatory visions through the process of compulsive reproduction of dots and arcs. The present work, with its red palette, vividly recalls one childhood hallucination in particular – the very first, and the most significant. Kusama recounts: “One day, after gazing at a pattern of red flowers on the tablecloth, I looked up to see that the ceiling, the windows, and the columns seemed to be plastered with the same red floral pattern. I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers, and in that instant my soul was obliterated and I was restored, returned to infinity, to eternal time and absolute space. This was not an illusion but reality itself. I was shocked to see to the depths of my soul.

No. 2, 1959

Christie’s New-York: 12 November 2008
Estimated: USD 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
USD 5,792,000

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) , No. 2 | Christie’s

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
No. 2, 1959
Oil on canvas
182.9 x 274.3 cm (71 3/4 x 108 inches)
Signed, titled and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 1959 No. 2’ (on the reverse)

The Infinity Nets of 1959 are hypnotic monochrome paintings that Yayoi Kusama created soon after her arrival in New York, the first step in a highly original artistic career that has made her the most highly renowned post-war artist from Japan. This series of paintings proved to be extremely prescient, as it not only encapsulated the seed of Kusama’s signature style for the next five decades but also presaged crucial elements of the influential Minimalist movement. No. 2 of 1959, with its undulating lattice of pure white paint, is one of the very first examples of Kusama’s Infinity Net series. Through the repetitive technique that she characterizes as “obsessional,” Kusama’s No. 2 envelops the viewer in a shimmering web that paradoxically radiates both a meditative calm and a dizzying restlessness.

Untitled, 1972

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 30 September 2017
Estimated: HKD 32,000,000 – 45,000,000
HKD 42,287,500 / USD 5,413,395

(#1067) Kusama Yayoi

YAYOI KUSAMA
Untitled, 1972
Oil on canvas
106.7 x 91.8 cm (42 x 36 1/8 inches)
Signed in English and dated 1972 on the reverse, framed

Lake Michigan, 1960

Painted in 1960, Yayoi Kusama’s third year in New York City and the first in which she rendered her iconic Infinity Nets in red, Lake Michigan eloquently articulates the blazing passion and acute conceptual turmoil which fuels the artist’s extraordinary practice. Intricately complex and exquisitely beautiful, the present work is a superb early example of Kusama’s Infinity Net paintings, the artist’s largest and most celebrated body of work. Characterized by a remarkably rippling composition comprised of elegantly swirling undulations of Kusama’s trademark dots, unlike other all-over Infinity Nets the present work is unique in its direct visual allusion to crashing waves. Examples from the esteemed handful of early Infinity Nets executed in 1959 and 1960 are held in renowned museum collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among other pre-eminent institutions. A striking testament to the alluring and disorienting spatial complexity that has defined Kusama’s work for decades, Lake Michigan offers a rare glimpse of the conceptual and creative origins of one of the most iconic figures of contemporary art. One of a small group of red Infinity Nets from 1960, the vibrant color of Lake Michigan constitutes a particularly intimate expression of the psychotropic visions which inspire and fuel Kusama’s unique abstraction. Diagnosed with obsessional neurosis, the artist has been haunted by hallucinatory visions of oscillating, kaleidoscopic patterns since her early childhood in Matsumoto City, Japan. Unlike Kusama’s early white Infinity Nets, which attest to the meditative calm which the artist finds in her focused practice, Lake Michigan’s distinctive shade of fiery crimson reverberates with a feverish urgency. Rendered in the same blazing color as the patterned red flowers which consumed Kusama as a child, Lake Michigan emulates the artist’s first harrowing experience of infinity. Painted in the third year after Kusama’s arrival in New York, Lake Michigan is a stirring evocation of the intense passion, tremendous hardship, and remarkable creative vision which marked the first years of the artist’s practice in the United States.

Pumpkin Paintings

Pumpkin (LPASG), 2013

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2021
Estimated: HKD 45,000,000 – 65,000,000
HKD 62,540,000 / USD 8,026,799

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (LPASG), 2013
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 130.3 cm (51.2 x 51.2 inches)

This year, the 92-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama opened not just one but two major shows: ‘Cosmic Nature,’ a sculpture and installation exhibition at New York Botanical Garden and ‘Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective,’ the artist’s first comprehensive retrospective in Germany at Gropius Bau, Berlin. Just as many other previous shows with visitors snaking in queues, the two soon became the favorite 2021 cultural events of many, underscoring the enduring appeal of the Japanese artist with her portrayal of hallucinatory experiences, particularly with the subject matter – pumpkin.

Pumpkin, 1995

Phillips Hong-Kong: 30 March 2023
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
HKD 56,110,000 / USD 7,147,862

Yayoi Kusama – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 10 March 2023 | Phillips

With its charming, jolly and peaceful presence, the pumpkin is unequivocally the most iconic motif of Kusama’s career. Full, symmetrical and voluptuous, the current work is an exquisite example of the artist’s highly coveted pumpkin paintings. Vibrantly rendered in golden yellow juxtaposed against ebony black, Pumpkin is undeniably and distinctly Kusama in its sharp contrast. An early example that is archetypal of Kusama’s pumpkin motif, the current work masterfully encapsulates the artist’s obsessional focus on accumulation, repetition, and the infinite through the combination of the three pillars that define her artistic practice – dots, nets, and the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Sculptures

Pumpkin (L), 2014

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 40,000,000 – 60,000,000
HKD 62,638,000 / USD 7,979,465

Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 | Pumpkin (L) 南瓜（L） | 50th Anniversary Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
Pumpkin (L), 2014
Bronze
241 x 235 x 235 cm (94 7/8 x 92 1/2 x 92 1/2 inches)
Incised Yayoi Kusama
This work is number 8 from an edition of 8, plus 2 artist’s proofs

Dazzling in its paradigmatic dot-covered pumpkin motif, Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (L) (2014) is rare example of the artist’s highly coveted sculptural pumpkins. Beautifully materialized in bronze, the artist’s iconic striations of multi-sized polka dots meticulously encase the pumpkin from stem to base in an effusive and sophisticated pattern. Produced for the artist’s installation at the Victoria Miro Gallery in 2014, a significant year for Kusama whose work was the subject of three international museum exhibitions, this meticulously executed sculpture is the largest version of this series in bronze and the first of this monumental scale to be offered at auction. As the subject of Kusama’s first permanent public artwork in New York City, editions of the bronze Pumpkin (L) have been displayed in front of the Sky residency building in Manhattan, as well as the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Iowa.

PUMPKIN, 2017

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 1 December 2021
Estimated: HKD 28,000,000 – 38,000,000
HKD 55,450,000 / USD 7,114,766

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929) (christies.com)

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
PUMPKIN, 2017
Fiberglass-reinforced plastic and urethane paint sculpture in two parts
215 (H) x 180 x 180 cm (84 5/8 x 70 7/8 x 70 7/8 inches)
Signed and dated ‘YAYOI KUSAMA 2017’ (on the side)

Pumpkin is a symbol of triumph in Kusama’s artistic career and life. Yayoi Kusama grew up in Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. She has been captivated by pumpkins since she was small at the seed harvesting farm of her family’s. In the early 1940s, the artist started experiencing hallucinations, and around the same time she started painting pumpkin. Looking for a breakthrough and unsupported by her family, Kusama embarked on a solo journey and moved across the Pacific Ocean to New York in 1958. She immersed herself in the city’s post-war cultural scene, quickly establishing a reputation in the new environment. Shortly within a year, she debuted her solo exhibition in the city and created a buzz in the art circle. Turning vulnerabilities into power, Kusama nullified the intense hallucinations she experienced by introducing them into her painterly reality and created these kaleidoscope patterns of dots and nets repeatedly. The iconic dotted pumpkin thus became a display of her internal struggles, in which she returned to a state of mental balance by creating endless colorful iterations of the spotted fruit. Today, the pumpkin has achieved an almost mythical status in Kusama’s oeuvre and stands as the artist’s alter ego.