Pumpkin
Medium: Lithograph and screenprint on Verin d’Arches paper
Lithograph
[2 plates, 2 colors, 2 runs]
Screenprint
[1 screen, 1 color, 1 run]
Year: 1982
Image: 52.2 x 45.7 cm (20.6 x 18 inches)
Sheet: 64 x 54.5 cm (25.2 x 21.5 inches)
Edition: 70
Printer: Shimo-oka Yoshiaki
Literature: ABE 5
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2007, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 5, Illustrated page 15
Signed, titled, numbered, and dated in pencil
Pumpkin (Abe 5), a lithograph and screenprint created in 1982, represents a pivotal early entry into Yayoi Kusama’s most famous series of works. It features a stylized, bulbous pumpkin covered in the artist’s signature polka dots, often set against a “net-like” background that provides optical depth. It pushes the visual logic seen in Kusama’s early 1980s pumpkin prints to a more immersive, almost confrontational intensity. While the iconography remains familiar, the compositional strategy here is markedly more assertive. The pumpkin fills the pictorial field almost edge to edge, its vertical ribs exaggerated and tightly packed, creating a sense of pressure rather than repose. Kusama again constructs volume exclusively through polka dots, but here the dot sequences are more emphatic: larger, denser chains run down the pumpkin’s core, while smaller dots recede toward the edges. The result is a rhythmic compression that makes the form feel less organic and more monumental: closer to a sculptural mass than a still-life motif.
The background is crucial. The black field fractured by yellow, vein-like lines introduces a restless, cellular texture that seems to vibrate behind the pumpkin. Unlike the earlier version where framing elements read as layered borders, here the background behaves almost like a living membrane, pressing forward. The pumpkin does not float in space; it asserts itself against an active, unstable ground. The red zigzag border, punctuated with white polka dots, caps the composition at the top and bottom with near-aggressive precision. This serrated edge recalls warning signs or ceremonial ornamentation, adding a sharp graphic tension. Red, in Kusama’s vocabulary, often signals psychological intensity rather than warmth. Its presence here breaks the meditative quality often associated with her pumpkins, introducing a controlled sense of unease.
Technically, the work combines lithography and screenprint, allowing Kusama to play with different densities of ink and surface interaction. The screenprinted dots are crisp and authoritative, while the lithographic elements retain a slight organic irregularity: an important distinction in her work, where repetition is never fully mechanized. Obsession, yes; automation, never. Conceptually, this print underscores why the pumpkin became such a durable symbol for Kusama. By 1982, it was no longer merely nostalgic or autobiographical. It had evolved into a stabilizing form, solid, familiar, almost stubborn, capable of withstanding visual and psychological turbulence. Surrounded by agitation, pattern, and sharp color contrasts, the pumpkin remains intact, self-contained.
For Kusama, the pumpkin is a recurring motif that represents several personal and spiritual themes. Kusama views the pumpkin as a kind of alter ego, citing its “generous unpretentiousness” and “spiritual balance”. Originating from childhood memories of her family’s plant nursery, the pumpkin serves as a source of warmth and a “spiritual home” that helped her cope with hallucinations. The dots covering the pumpkin symbolize her attempt to dissolve her own identity into the universe, a process she calls “self-obliteration”. By obsessively repeating the motif, Kusama transforms frightening childhood hallucinations into something inspiring and controlled.
Released in 1982, this work belongs to the period following Kusama’s return to Japan from New York in the late 1970s, when she began focusing heavily on printmaking. This 1982 print preceded her major international “pumpkin mania,” such as the famous 1994 Naoshima Island sculpture and her 1993 Venice Biennale installation.
Auction Results
SBI Art Auction: 24 January 2026
Estimated: JPY 4,500,000 – 7,500,000
JPY 8,625,000 / USD 55,675
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (Kusama 5), 1982
Lithograph, screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 70
Printed by Shimo-oka Yoshiaki
Ravenel Taipei: 1 June 2025
Estimated: TWD 1,300,000 – 2,200,000
TWD 1,100,000 / USD 36,775
YAYOI KUSAMA (Japanese, 1929)
Pumpkin (Kusama 5), 1982
Screenprint
Signed lower right Yayoi Kusama
Titled Pumpkin, dated 1982 and numbered 60/70
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 27 April 2024
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 8,625,000 / USD 54,505
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1982
Lithograph
Signed
From the edition of 70
SBI Art Auction: 27 January 2024
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 9,775,000 / USD 65,965
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (Kusama 5), 1982
Lithograph, screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 70
Est-Ouest Auctions Tokyo: 25 November 2023
Estimated: JPY 6,000,000 – 9,000,000
JPY 10,120,000 / USD 67,715
YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1982
Lithograph, screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and edition in the margin
SBI Art Auction: 27 October 2023
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 9,775,000 / USD 65,005
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (Kusama 5), 1982
Lithograph, screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 70
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 29 April 2023
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 8,050,000 / USD 59,080
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1982
Lithograph and screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 70
Seoul Auction: 26 April 2022
Estimated: KRW 120,000,000 – 200,000,000
KRW 151,600,000 / USD 113,260
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1982
Lithograph and screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 35/70 on the recto
K Auction Seoul: 23 February 2022
Estimated: KRW 150,000,000 – 200,000,000
KRW 149,500,000 / USD 125,600
AUCTION RECORD FOR PUMPKIN (KUSAMA 5)
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1982
Lithograph and screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered on the front
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 9 April 2021
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 4,000,000 (Hammer)
JPY 4,660,000 / USD 42,505
YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1982
Lithograph and screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 70