Pumpkin MT

Medium: Screenprint in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[3 screens, 2 colors, 3 runs]
Year: 1999
Image: 44.3 x 36.6 cm (17.4 x 14.4 inches)
Sheet: 59×50 cm (23.2 x 19.7 inches)
Edition: 110
Artist’s Proofs: 11 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Printer: Okabe Tokuzo, Japan
Literature: ABE 257
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 257, illustrated page 153

Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge

 

It was during her childhood visit to a seed nursery near her home in Matsumoto, Japan, that Yayoi Kusama first stumbled across a pumpkin. Afflicted with visual and auditory hallucinations, Kusama vividly recalls the pumpkin speaking to her younger self from the vine. Drawn to its “humorous form” and “warm feeling”, Kusama has since developed a lifelong fascination with the humble fruit.

“I would confront the spirit of the pumpkin, forgetting everything else and concentrating my mind entirely upon the form before me. Just as Bodhidharma spent ten years facing a stone wall, I spent as much as a month facing a single pumpkin. I regretted even having to take time to sleep”

After her first attempt at depicting this subject matter in the traditional Japanese nihonga style in 1946, Kusama continued to paint pumpkins diligently during her four-year-study at the Kyoto Senior High School of Art. Despite a temporary hiatus from the pumpkin after her relocation to New York in 1958, Kusama revisited her beloved motif in the 1970s, reimagining it in various mediums and scales in the subsequent decades.

Created in 1999, Pumpkin MT brings together three prominent motifs in Kusama’s oeuvre – the pumpkin, polka dot, and infinity net. Set against an expansive background of net-like patterns that directly evoke her Infinity Net series, the vivid yellow pumpkin is covered with polka dots of alternating sizes. In delineating its slightly elongated, curvaceous shape, Kusama elevates the object through her at once graceful and whimsical treatment.

“I use my complexes and fears as subjects. I make them and make them and then keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process”

In addition to these recurring motifs, Kusama further explores the central theme of repetition in Pumpkin MT through her adopted medium of screen-print. As she slowly builds up the form of the pumpkin through the accumulative use of polka dots, the near-meditative practice allows the artist to combat and transcend her hallucinatory mental illness. Simultaneously advancing and receding, the rhythmic dynamism of the dots imbues the pumpkin with an animated quality, creating a dazzling effect that transports the viewer into Kusama’s fantastical world.

Source: Phillips

 

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Auction Results

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Mainichi Auction: 7 February 2026
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
Lot #0182
JPY 7,245,000 / USD 46,090

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
ABE publishing (2017) No.257
Screenprint
Signed in the lower right margin
Titled and dated and Ed. 110 in the lower left margin

Mallet Auction: 15 May 2025
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 7,000,000
JPY 6,800,000 (Hammer)
JPY 7,922,000 / USD 54,395

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT (ABE 257), 1999
Screenprint in colors on Arches
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil, from the edition of 110

Phillips New-York: 22 October 2024
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 69,850

SBI Art Auction: 24 May 2024
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 7,000,000
JPY 9,200,000 / USD 58,599

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT (Kusama 257), 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 110

K Auction Seoul: 22 May 2024
Estimated: KRW 93,000,000 – 150,000,000
KRW 103,500,000 / USD 75,870

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, dated, titled and numbered 47/110 on the front

K Auction Seoul: 20 December 2023
Estimated: KRW 95,000,000 – 150,000,000
KRW 115,000,000 / USD 88,550

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, dated, titled and numbered 81/110 on the front

Seoul Auction: 19 December 2023
Estimated: KRW 95,000,000 – 150,000,000
KRW 129,800,000 / USD 99,685

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, dated, titled and numbered 61/110 on the recto

Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 50,400

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint in black and yellow on Arches paper
Signed, titled and dated in pencil, numbered 69⁄110

K Auction: 20 September 2023
Estimated: KRW 95,000,000 – 150,000,000
KRW 109,250,000 / USD 82,265

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screen-print in colors
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 98/110 on the front

Mainichi Auction: 29 July 2023
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 9,545,000 / USD 67,621

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 110

Phillips London: 19 January 2023
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 56,700 / USD 70,112

Mainichi Auction: 29 October 2022
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 10,500,000 / USD 71,198 (Hammer)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 110

Phillips London: 14 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 52,920 / USD 61,193

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT (K. 257), 1999
Screen-print in colors on Arches paper
Signed, titled, dated and annotated ‘P.P.’ in pencil
(one of 5 printer’s proofs, the edition was 110 and 11 artist’s proofs)

Seoul Auction: 26 July 2022
Estimated: KRW 80,000,000 – 150,000,000
KRW 97,940,000 / USD 74,715

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screen-print in colors
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 81/110 on the front

Mainichi Auction: 30 October 2021
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 9,300,000 / USD 81,600 (Hammer)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 110

Christie’s New-York: 21 October 2021
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 168,750
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR PUMPKIN MT

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin MT, 1999
Screen-print in black and yellow, on Arches paper
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil, numbered 102/110