INFINITY-NETS (TWQPA), 2012
Acrylic on canvas
162×130.3 cm (63.8×51.3 inches)
Titled, signed and dated 2012 (on the reverse)

 

Provenance
SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Private Collection, Europe

 

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 24 November 2018
HKD 9,700,000 / USD 1,239,759

Source: Christie’s
YAYOI KUSAMA (JAPAN, B. 1929) (christies.com)

 

It is very likely that white was one of the first colors that Yayoi Kusama used to create her Infinity Nets and may be regarded as the series’ original hue. Amongst the myriad fascinating pieces in Kusama’s oeuvre, Infinity Nets is possibly the series that is most beloved by the public, held in high esteem in contemporary art history. Kusama executed Infinity Net paintings in many different color combinations. Amongst all the variations, white Infinity Net paintings seem to have a personal significance to the artist.

INFINITY NETS(TWQPA) is a boundless realm woven with innumerable white half circles while a field of silver grey is visible in the background. The net of dots used in this series was inspired by visual hallucinations that Kusama experienced since she was a child. Not only does the picture dazzle the viewers’ vision, it also embodies the artist’s complicated emotions while she laboriously executed this painting. Yayoi Kusama primarily used a palette of black, white, and grey to create minimalistic Infinity Net paintings between 1950s and 1960s. The works that follow were mostly painted using various colours. Paintings in white were rarely seen in the next few decades. It was not until the turn of the millennium did viewers see the return of white Infinity Net paintings with silver grey background. It is as though the artist held the sacred purity of white in such reverence that she did not revisit Infinity Net paintings in white until half a century later.