INFINITY NETS (XAZ), 1999
Acrylic on canvas
75.6×90.8 cm (29.8×35.7 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 1999 on the reverse

Provenance
Private Collection, Japan (acquired directly from the artist)
Sotheby’s, New York, 10 November 2005, Lot 178
Private Collection, Denver (acquired from the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

 

Sotheby’s New-York: 18 November 2016
USD 468,500

Source: Sotheby’s
(#192) Yayoi Kusama (sothebys.com)

 

In vibrant hues of crimson and emerald green, Infinity Nets [XAZ] is testament to Yayoi Kusama’s captivating mastery of spatial abstraction. Executed in 1999, it marks the apex of a period of major and highly celebrated retrospectives that wholly solidified Kusama’s status and significance within the context of the contemporary art canon. In its intricately constructed surface of undulating forms, Infinity Nets [XAZ] is a brilliant example from the artist’s most iconic and celebrated body of work.

On the surface of Infinity Nets [XAZ], Kusama’s labyrinthine web of undulating loops pulsates with irrepressible force, drawing the viewer towards the shimmering spaces contained within the tightly woven skeins of vibrant pigment. Working with a focus both obsessive and meditative, Kusama moved her brush quickly across the surface of her canvases with precise, minute flicks of the wrist, carefully weaving the complex skein of overlapping loops to create an undulating pattern. Produced decades after the first, intimately scaled examples of the Infinity Net series, the rich surface of Infinity Nets [XAZ] continues that legacy, employing the same repetitive and hypnotic mark-making that characterizes the very best of Kusama’s oeuvre.