Going to the field with shoes on

Medium: Screenprint on Hakou-shi paper
[6 screens, 6 colors, 6 runs]
Year: 1979
Image: 50.5 x 65 cm (19.9 x 25.6 inches)
Sheet: 54.5 x 69 cm (21.5 x 27.2 inches)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 10 AP
Printer: Ishida Ryoichi
Literature: ABE 1
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2007, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 1, Illustrated page 11

Signed, titled, numbered, and dated in pencil

 

Going to the Field with Shoes On is a seminal screenprint by Yayoi Kusama, marking her official entry into the medium of printmaking after returning to Japan. It features high-heeled shoes as the central motif, a recurring subject in Kusama’s oeuvre. The shoes are embedded with a net-like depiction, characteristic of her famous “Infinity Nets” style. True to Kusama’s aesthetic, the piece utilizes repetition and rhythmic patterns, often polka dots, to cover the surface of the shoes, creating a sense of hypnotic movement.

For Kusama, shoes are “celebratory vehicles of self-expression” and a bridge between art and fashion. Historically, Kusama used everyday objects like shoes in her “Compulsion Furniture” series to confront sexual anxieties and fears through obsessive repetition. By covering a symbol of movement (shoes) with infinite patterns, she connects the personal journey of the individual with the larger, boundless cosmos: a process she calls “self-obliteration”. The high heels explore the “guises of femininity,” appearing as vibrant but empty vessels awaiting a wearer, which some critics interpret as a commentary on the anonymity of societal roles.

The print was created shortly after Kusama voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo in 1977. While her other works from this era often explored themes of death and suffering, her prints shifted toward vivid, bright colors and life-affirming motifs.

 

 

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Auction Results

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YAYOI KUSAMA
Going to the field with shoes on (Abe 1), 1979
Screenprint in colors on Hako-shi
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil
From the edition of 100 (there were also 10 A.P.)

SBI Art Auction: 25 October 2024
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 2,875,000 / USD 18,876

YAYOI KUSAMA
Going to the Field with Shoes on (Kusama 1), 1979
Screenprint
Signed, dated and numbered
From the edition of 100

Mallet Japan: 2 March 2023
Estimated: JPY 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
JPY 3,000,000 (Hammer)
JPY 3,495,000 / USD 25,535

YAYOI KUSAMA
Going to the field with shoes on, 1979
Screenprint in colors
Signed
From the edition of 100

SBI Art Auction: 28 October 2022
Estimated: JPY 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
JPY 4,830,000 / USD 33,020

YAYOI KUSAMA
Going to the field with shoes on (Kusama 1), 1979
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 100

Est-Ouest Auctions Tokyo: 24 September 2022
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 7,260,000 / USD 51,035

YAYOI KUSAMA
GOING TO THE FIELD WITH SHOES ON, 1979
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered on the margin

Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 5 September 2020
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 3,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 3,728,000 / USD 35,055

YAYOI KUSAMA
Going to the field with shoes on, 1979
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100

Est-Ouest Auctions Hong-Kong: 24 November 2019
Estimated: HKD 80,000 – 130,000
HKD 66,550 / USD 8,505

YAYOI KUSAMA
GOING TO THE FIELD WITH SHOES ON, 1979
Screenprint paper bending
Signed
Edition: 6/100