INFINITY-NETS [YASOP], 2013
Acrylic on canvas
194×194 cm (76.4×76.4 inches)
Signed, titled in English and Japanese and dated 2013 on the reverse
Provenance
Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2013
Sotheby’s New-York: 19 May 2017
USD 1,932,500
Source: Sotheby’s
(#408) Yayoi Kusama (sothebys.com)
Yayoi Kusama remains one of the most delightfully eccentric and fantastically prolific figures in the contemporary art world today. The present work, Infinity-Nets [YASOP] is a striking example from Kusama’s most celebrated series, the Infinity Nets. Arguably her most visually complex and conceptually provocative body of works, the Infinity Nets stand out from the artist’s diverse oeuvre as particularly poignant contributions to the conversation of 20th century art. Having first emerged in the late 1950s, the Infinity Net paintings represent an astounding half-century long expression of the artist’s own obsessional neurosis and persistent use of art production to “self-obliterate” hallucinatory visions through the process of compulsive reproduction of painted spots. “This was my epic, summing up all I was” Kusama once remarked. “And the spell of the dots and the mesh enfolded me in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power” (Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net, London 2011, p. 23).
From their inception, Kusama’s Infinity Nets ever so quietly dispelled traditional rules and expectations of pictorial space, painterly narratives and calculated compositions. Instead, through their rather organic production, works such as Infinity-Nets [YASOP] celebrate the sheer materiality of Kusama’s canvas and oils while delving into a dizzying exploration of optical sensations. While not entirely random nor overly precise, the artist’s carefully painted dots and arcs weave together a mesmerizing web. Kusama herself has described her Infinity Nets as paintings “without beginning, end, or center. The entire canvas would be occupied by a monochromatic net. This endless repetition caused a kind of dizzy, empty, hypnotic feeling.” Infinity-Nets [YASOP] serves as a magnificent representation of Kusama’s painting at its best. For all the flurry of countless brushstrokes across this grand canvas, with its elegant palette and intricate construction, the work remains entirely serene and utterly spellbinding to the artist and viewer alike.