A PUMPKIN YB-B
Medium: Screen-print in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[3 screens, 2 colors, 3 runs]
Year: 2004
Image: 24 x 28.5 cm (9.4 x 11.2 inches)
Sheet: 33 x 38.5 cm (13 x 15.2 inches)
Edition: 120
Artist’s Proofs: 12 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Printer: Okabe Tokuzo, Tokyo
Literature: ABE 327
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 327, Illustrated page 188
Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge
The composition of A PUMPKIN YB-B is rigorously frontal. The pumpkin fills the pictorial space with quiet authority, centered and monumental, its segmented body articulated through vertical bands of polka dots that vary subtly in scale. This modulation is essential: the dots are not decorative but structural. Larger dots advance, smaller ones recede, creating volume through rhythm rather than shading. Kusama constructs form through accumulation, not illusion. Color is decisive and unapologetic. The saturated yellow of the pumpkin, set against a dense black ground, belongs to Kusama’s most iconic chromatic pairing. Presumably YB-B stands for “Yellow Black on Black”. Yellow, for Kusama, is neither cheerful nor symbolic in a conventional sense; it is a psychological color, associated with both comfort and fixation. Black functions as containment, a void that frames and intensifies the motif. The contrast is absolute, almost aggressive, yet perfectly balanced. There is no ambiguity here, only control.
For Kusama, the pumpkin is a deeply personal and positive symbol, a source of comfort and stability rooted in her childhood, in contrast to the frightening hallucinations she experienced. Growing up on her family’s seed farm in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama developed a fascination with the “generous unpretentiousness” and “spiritual balance” of pumpkins. She found them warm and humorous, viewing them as friends. Kusama uses the repetitive theme of pumpkins and dots as a form of art therapy to manage her mental health struggles and hallucinations, turning something that once triggered fear into something amusing and inspiring. The polka dots are not merely decorative; they are a conceptual language representing infinity. Through the endless repetition of dots and patterns, Kusama explores the idea of self-obliteration, where the individual dissolves into the larger universe. In Japanese culture, pumpkins (kabocha) are associated with prosperity, good fortune, and endurance. They embody Kusama’s own balance of vulnerability and resilience.
Within Kusama’s larger production, this print stands as a distilled statement. The pumpkin has evolved into a universal form, stripped of anecdote and elevated to icon. It is comforting, stable, and strangely relentless. A symbol not of abundance or harvest, but of endurance: the quiet insistence of a form repeated until it becomes timeless.
The auction record for A PUMPKIN YB-B was set at K Auction in Seoul on 22 December 2021 when it sold for KRW 108,100,000 (USD 90,745).
K Auction Seoul: 22 December 2021
Estimated: KRW 40,000,000 – 100,000,000
KRW 108,100,000 / USD 90,745
AUCTION RECORD FOR A PUMPKIN YB-B
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B, 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 14/120 on the front
Auction Results
Alex Cooper Auctioneers: 12 December 2025
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 16,000 (Hammer)
USD 20,480
YAYOI KUSAMA (Japanese, b. 1929)
Pumpkin YB-B, 2004
Screenprint in colors
Edition: 83/120
Pencil titled lower center
Pencil signed lower right
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 8 February 2025
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 5,980,000 / USD 39,495
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B (ABE 327), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, dated and numbered
From the edition of 120
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 3 February 2024
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 9,200,000 / USD 62,020
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B (ABE 327), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, dated and numbered
From the edition of 120
John Moran Auctioneers: 11 April 2023
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 56,250
YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929)
A Pumpkin YB-B, 2004
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Edition: 42/120
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil in the lower margin: Yayoi Kusama
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 29 October 2022
Estimated: JPY 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
JPY 8,500,000 (Hammer)
JPY 9,902,500 / USD 67,145
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B (ABE 327), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, dated and numbered
PP aside from the edition of 120
Est-Ouest Auctions Tokyo: 22 May 2022
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 7,623,000 / USD 59,960
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B, 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered on the margin
K Auction Seoul: 22 December 2021
Estimated: KRW 40,000,000 – 100,000,000
KRW 108,100,000 / USD 90,745
AUCTION RECORD FOR A PUMPKIN YB-B
YAYOI KUSAMA
A PUMPKIN YB-B, 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 14/120 on the front
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 18 June 2021
Estimated: JPY 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
JPY 4,000,000 (Hammer)
JPY 4,660,000 / USD 42,885
YAYOI KUSAMA
A pumpkin YB-B, 2004
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 120