Pumpkin MY

Medium: Screen-print in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[3 screens, 2 colors, 3 runs]
Year: 1999
Image: 36.5 x 44.2 cm (14.4 x 17.4 inches)
Sheet: 50×59 cm (19.7 x 23.2 inches)
Edition: 110
Artist’s Proofs: 11 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Printer: Okabe Tokuzo, Japan
Literature: ABE 258
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 258, illustrated page 153

Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge

 

Pumpkin MY from 1999 continues Yayoi Kusama’s systematic exploration of one of her most enduring motifs, developed through printmaking at the turn of the millennium. By this period, Kusama had fully established the pumpkin as a central form within her visual vocabulary, using it as a stable structure through which repetition, pattern, and color could be precisely controlled. The composition features a yellow pumpkin set against a black background, entirely constructed from black polka dots of varying scale. The dots follow the vertical rhythm of the pumpkin’s lobes, creating volume and depth through optical modulation rather than shading. This method reflects Kusama’s long-standing interest in repetition as a constructive device, transforming a familiar organic form into a carefully ordered visual system.

The background is covered with a dense Infinity Net rendered in yellow lines over black. Unlike earlier, more immersive net paintings, this net functions as a framing device, reinforcing continuity and spatial extension without dissolving the central motif. The pumpkin remains clearly defined, anchored within a surrounding field of repetition.

Yellow is a key color in Kusama’s pumpkin imagery and is closely associated with comfort, memory, and stability, referencing her childhood experiences in rural Japan. In this 1999 print, the warmth of the yellow contrasts with the strict graphic structure, balancing emotional familiarity with formal discipline.

Overall, this work exemplifies Kusama’s mature print practice at the end of the 1990s. It demonstrates how she used the pumpkin not as a narrative symbol, but as a controlled visual framework through which themes of repetition, order, and continuity are consistently articulated.

 

 

 

---

Auction Results

---

Est-Ouest Auctions Hong-Kong: 21 December 2023
Estimated: HKD 280,000 – 380,000
HKD 379,500 / USD 48,615

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MY, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and editioned in the margin

Mainichi Auction: 3 September 2021
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 4,800,000 / USD 43,775

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MY, 1999
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 110

Mainichi Auction: 18 June 2021
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 4,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 4,893,000 / USD 44,400

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MY, 1999
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 110

Roseberys London: 8 April 2019
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 31,200 / USD 40,750

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MY, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Verin d’Arches wove
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 110

Mainichi Auction: 19 January 2019
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 3,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 3,728,000 / USD 33,965

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MY, 1999
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 110