Hat
Medium: Screenprint in colors on Peche Soleil paper
[2 screens, 2 colors, 2 runs]
Year: 1983
Image: 45 x 52.5 cm (17.7 x 20.7 inches)
Sheet: 55.5 x 64.3 cm (21.9 x 25.3 inches)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 10 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 3 PP
Printer: Okabe Tokuzo, Tokyo
Literature: ABE 22
ABE Publishing Ltd., Yayoi Kusama: Prints 1979-2017, Tokyo, 2017, Number 22, Illustrated page 23
Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge
Hat belongs to Yayoi Kusama’s sustained exploration of clothing as a psychological and symbolic extension of the self. The composition presents a wide-brimmed hat seen frontally, isolated against a black ground entirely animated by a dense, irregular network pattern. Rendered in a stark yellow-and-black palette, the hat is constructed through alternating bands of polka dots, graphic textures, and linear motifs, each clearly delineated yet visually interlocked.
Technically, the print demonstrates Kusama’s early mastery of graphic reduction and repetition in her printmaking practice. The dots vary in size and density, creating a rhythmic articulation of volume while flattening the form into a highly legible, almost diagrammatic image. The surrounding net-like background, already a central element in her work by this period, functions as an all-over field that both frames and destabilizes the central motif, preventing any sense of spatial depth or narrative setting.
For Kusama, the hat operates as more than an accessory. For the artist, garments often signify identity, protection, and social codes. Here, the hat becomes a container-like form, hovering between ornament and enclosure. The repetitive patterns that cover it suggest both decoration and obsession, aligning the image with Kusama’s broader engagement with self-obliteration, accumulation, and psychological control.
Produced in 1983, this print predates the full codification of the pumpkin as Kusama’s dominant icon and offers insight into how everyday objects served as early vehicles for her visual language. The hat functions as a transitional motif, allowing Kusama to explore repetition, surface saturation, and symbolic containment within a familiar form. The result is a work that is visually assertive yet conceptually restrained, firmly situating the print within the artist’s mature graphic vocabulary of the early 1980s.
Auction Results
New Auction: 28 June 2025
Estimated: JPY 1,800,000 – 2,800,000
JPY 2,124,000 / USD 14,685
YAYOI KUSAMA (1929-)
Hat (Kusama 22), 1983
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 100
Seoul Auction: 17 December 2024
Estimated: KRW 35,000,000 – 70,000,000
KRW 43,000,000 (Hammer)
KRW 50,740,000 / USD 35,315
REPEAT SALE
Seoul Auction: 24 August 2021
Estimated: KRW 33,000,000 – 60,000,000
KRW 41,000,000 (Hammer)
KRW 47,150,000 / USD 40,500
YAYOI KUSAMA
Hat, 1983
Screenprint
Edition: 45/100 (plus 10 artist’s proofs)
Signed, dated, titled and numbered on the recto
Mainichi Auction: 27 April 2024
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 3,910,000 / USD 24,710
YAYOI KUSAMA
Hat, 1983
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100
Mallet Japan: 20 March 2021
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,300,000
JPY 1,700,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,980,500 / USD 18,170
YAYOI KUSAMA
Hat, 1983
Screenprint in colors
Signed
An Artist’s Proof aside from the edition of 100
Mainichi Auction: 14 November 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,500,000 – 2,500,000
JPY 1,400,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,631,000 / USD 15,590
YAYOI KUSAMA
Hat, 1983
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100
Mainichi Auction: 6 June 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,300,000 – 1,800,000
JPY 1,500,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,747,500 / USD 15,945
YAYOI KUSAMA
Hat, 1983
Screenprint
Signed
Edition: 64/100