Infinity-Nets [TOWZ], 2005
Acrylic on canvas
91.1×116.8 cm (35.9×46 inches)
Signed, titled and dated ‘INFINITY-NETS Yayoi Kusama 2005 TOWZ’ (on the reverse)

 

Provenance
Anthony Meier Fine Arts, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2006

 

Christie’s New-York: 18 May 2018
USD 1,812,500

Source: Christie’s
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) (christies.com)

 

Gentle ripples of white, scalloped forms billow over the surface of this large canvas, enveloping both the viewer and the artist in the concept of the infinite. Expanding and contracting with a steady pulse, the circular nets cover the monochrome gray background, and with varied densities and translucencies, these infinity nets establish a spectacular sense of pictorial space. Composed without entry or endpoints, Infinity-Nets is a spellbinding mindscape.

From a distance, the painting appears weightless, free of the constraints of form, color, and composition. However, with proximity, the obsessive and painstaking application is unveiled. Honed through intense concentrated periods of work, the minute motion employed by Yayoi Kusama produces the artist’s desired effect of monumentality. Here, Yayoi Kusama harnesses the manmade, the painted circle and dot, to quantify the abstract concept of infinity. The looping brushstrokes, an expression of self-obliteration, fuse together to create a continuity of whiteness. When viewed in totality, the overlying segments of netting undulate much like a wave, rhythmically rising, receding, crashing and cresting. Transcending its sheer physicality, the painting motes a disquieting sense of religiosity and rituality.