Introduction
In Morning is Here A-E, Yayoi Kusama partners a mug embossed with the words “Love Forever 2004” overlayed with a field of monochromatic dots in five versions. “Love Forever” seems to be a phrase for which Kusama holds fondness. In 1998, The Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized an exhibition titled “Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958-1968” investigating the decade she spent living and creating in New York City. The exhibition’s poster featured the artist holding buttons in front of her eyes that read “Love Forever,” originally fashioned to be handed out at the opening of Kusama’s Peep Show in 1966.
The exhibition, as well as the phrase, highlighted the longevity of Kusama’s work, remaining every bit as bizarre and as mystifying as it was in her earliest days. Kusama’s choice to include the year she created Morning is Here just below “Love Forever” emphasizes her continued endurance as one of contemporary art’s most significant artists. 2004 was a significant year for Kusama, being the year The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo organized an exhibition titled “Yayoi Kusama: Eternity-Modernity,” her most-comprehensive retrospective to date. Such a major exhibition led to an influx of interest in acquisitions by museums and collectors; that same year, her infinity mirror room Fireflies on the Water was featured in the Whitney Biennale, increasing her international recognition. Though Kusama had shown extensively throughout her career, the 2000s marked the beginning of what would become a world-wide obsession with the eccentric artist.
Kusama is well known for signature polka-dot motif, which fills the picture plane in this vibrant set of five screenprints. At a young age, she experienced hallucinations of bright lights, spots, and obliterating patterns and sought to capture them through art in an attempt to subdue them. Later, she came to call this ‘psychosomatic art’, a coping mechanism to alleviate her mental state. Kusama’s obsession with dots evokes a child-like playfulness masking a darker, psychedelic experience, their repetition transporting the artist’s mind to a calmer, more meditative state. This same repetitive act is notable in the prints themselves of Morning is Here A-E. In creating five different iterations of the mug surrounded by polka-dots—some even adorn the saucer beneath—Kusama perpetuates her need for replication just as one might find comfort sipping coffee from a mug in their morning routine. With the words “Love Forever,” Kusama promises an eternity of comfort veiled in the continual obligation of the dots, an echo of her past and a constant of her present.
Morning is Here A-E, 2004
Morning Is Here A-E
The complete set of five screenprints in colors
Medium: Screen-print in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[5 screens, 4 colors, 5 runs]
Year: 2004
Image: 16×23 cm (6.2 x 9 inches)
Sheet: 24×31 cm (9.5 x 12.2 inches)
Edition: 95
Artist’s Proofs: 13 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 1 PP
Hors Commerce: 11 HC
Printer: Ishida Ryoichi, Tokyo
Publisher: TOKI-NO-WASUREMONO, Takeda, Bijyutsu, Tokyo
Literature: ABE 333-337
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 333-337, illustrated page 191-192
Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge
1. Morning Is Here A (ABE 333)
2. Morning Is Here B (ABE 334)
3. Morning Is Here C (ABE 335)
4. Morning Is Here D (ABE 336)
5. Morning Is Here E (ABE 337)
Single Prints
Mainichi Auction: 13 December 2025
Estimated: JPY 600,000 – 800,000
JPY 1,322,500 / USD 8,490
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is here D (ABE 336), 2004
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 95
SBI Art Auction: 25 October 2024
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,400,000
JPY 1,840,000 / USD 12,080
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is Here C (Kusama 335), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 95
SBI Art Auction: 27 January 2024
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,400,000
JPY 3,220,000 / USD 21,730
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is Here A (Kusama 333), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 95
Mainichi Auction: 18 March 2022
Estimated: JPY 700,000 – 1,000,000
JPY 980,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,141,700 / USD 9,575
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is here D, 2004
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 95
Mainichi Auction: 3 September 2021
Estimated: JPY 300,000 – 700,000
JPY 930,000 / USD 8,480
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is here B, 2004
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 95
Phillips London: 21 January 2021
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 8,190 / USD 11,235
Screenprint in colours on Arches paper
Signed, titled in Japanese, dated and numbered 79/95 in pencil
Estimated: JPY 500,000 – 700,000
JPY 740,000 (Hammer)
JPY 862,100 / USD 8,300
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning Is Here B, 2004
Screenprint in colors on Arches
Signed
Edition: 56/95 (there were also 13 A.P.)
Estimated: JPY 600,000 – 900,000
JPY 1,035,000 / USD 9,680
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning Is Here D (Kusama 336), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
HC aside from the edition of 95
SBI Art Auction: 20 June 2020
Estimated: JPY 500,000 – 800,000
JPY 1,322,500 / USD 12,370
Morning Is Here E (Kusama 337), 2004
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 95
Complete Sets
Phillips New-York: 24 October 2023
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 48,260
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is Here A-E (K. 332-336), 2004
The complete set of five screenprints in colors on Arches paper
All signed, titled in Japanese, dated, lettered ‘A-E’ respectively and annotated ‘H.C.’ in pencil
From the edition of 11 hors commerce impressions, the edition was 95 and 13 artist’s proofs
Mainichi Auction: 15 July 2017
Estimated: JPY 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
JPY 3,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 3,728,000 / USD 33,130
YAYOI KUSAMA
Morning is Here A to E, 2004
Screenprint
Signed
Edition: 47/95