Net-No.2 Yellow, 1960
Oil on fiberboard
96.5×71 cm (38×28 inches)
Signed and titled in English and dated 1960 on the reverse

Provenance
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 2 April 2017
HKD 25,300,000 / USD 3,255,652

Source: Sotheby’s
(#1039) Kusama Yayoi (sothebys.com)

Dated from 1960, the exquisitely electric Net-No.2 Yellow is the first large yellow net from Kusama Yayoi’s early period infinity nets to appear at auction. Standing at almost a meter tall, the piece is a masterpiece of blazing radiance, exhibiting endless repetitions of minute solid yellow arcs dabbed dexterously over black, a palette rarely seen in the market for Kusama’s early period nets, which mostly employed white and red. Bright yellow would in later years become one of the artist’s most signature and representative colors, as seen in her omnipresent pumpkins, rendering the current lot an important forerunner in Kusama’s legendary oeuvre. The vast net pulsates with infinite rhythmic ripples and dynamic undulations, featuring an endless writhing mass of elegant scalloped arcs punctuated by occasional swirls of thick impasto that add beguiling textural depth. A rare specimen hailing from Kusama’s most celebrated series from the most coveted era of her career, Net-No.2 Yellow is exemplary of Kusama’s iconic brand of abstraction that first established her indomitable position in the Western art world.