Pumpkin

Medium: Lithograph in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[2 plates, 2 colors, 2 runs]
Year: 1984
Image: 31.2 x 40.7 cm (12.3 x 16 inches)
Sheet: 43 x 56.5 cm (16.9 x 22.2 inches)
Edition: 30
Artist’s Proofs: 3 AP
Printer’s Proof: 1 PP
Printer: Kimura Kihachi, Tokyo
Literature: ABE 39-42
ABE Publishing Ltd., Yayoi Kusama: Prints 1979-2017, Tokyo, 2017, Numbers 39 to 42, Illustrated pages 34-35

Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge

 

1. Pumpkin (ABE 39)

2. Pumpkin (ABE 40)

3. Pumpkin (ABE 41)

4. Pumpkin (ABE 42)

 

This suite of four pumpkin lithographs from 1984 marks a decisive moment in Yayoi Kusama’s graphic work, where repetition, color, and seriality are no longer merely formal strategies but become the very subject of the work. Seen together, the four images function less as individual prints than as a calibrated system. The composition remains constant: a centrally placed pumpkin, constructed through graduated polka dots, set against a dense field of net-like lines. What changes is color: and with it, psychological temperature. Kusama does not treat color as variation for pleasure; she uses it as a shift in emotional register.

Pumpkin (ABE 39)

The yellow pumpkin on black reads as the most archetypal. Yellow here carries its familiar Kusama associations: grounding, familiarity, a sense of personal attachment. It is the pumpkin as anchor—stable, legible, almost benevolent.

Pumpkin (ABE 40)

The red version introduces a different tension. Red, paired with black, intensifies the form and compresses the space. The pumpkin feels more alert, even guarded. Where yellow stabilizes, red asserts. It is the same structure, but emotionally sharpened.

Pumpkin (ABE 41)

The green iteration is perhaps the most ambiguous. Green cools the image, pulling the pumpkin back into the surrounding field. The form feels quieter, less iconic, closer to the organic world. It is the least confrontational of the four, suggesting absorption rather than resistance.

Pumpkin (ABE 42)

Finally, the yellow pumpkin on red reverses the usual hierarchy. The background becomes active, almost vibrating, while the pumpkin glows forward. This version is the most dynamic, pushing contrast to its limit. It reads as the most visually assertive—and perhaps the most performative—of the set.

Across all four, the net-patterned backgrounds recall Kusama’s infinity nets, but here they are tightly controlled, contained within the frame. The pumpkin resists dissolution in every case. No matter the chromatic environment, it holds its shape, its rhythm, its internal logic. This constancy is crucial: color alters perception, not identity. Technically, the lithographs demonstrate Kusama’s absolute precision in repetition. The dots are never decorative; they are structural units, building volume through accumulation. The serial format reinforces this logic—repetition not as redundancy, but as insistence.

Conceptually, this 1984 suite makes a clear statement: the pumpkin is no longer an isolated symbol but a variable constant. It adapts, absorbs, reacts, yet never collapses. Seen together, the four prints articulate one of Kusama’s core propositions: stability is not the absence of change, but the ability to remain oneself under different conditions. It is precisely this balance, between sameness and difference, that gives the series its quiet authority. Not spectacle, not narrative. Just form, repetition, and control, tested four times and confirmed each time.

 

 

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Pumpkin (ABE 39)

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Mallet Japan: 18 July 2024
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 8,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 9,553,000 / USD 60,855

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1984
Lithograph in colors on Arches
Signed
From the edition of 30

iART Tokyo: 17 September 2022
Estimated: 5,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 7,500,000 (Hammer)
JPY 8,737,500 / USD 61,120

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Print (lithograph)
Signed, from the edition of 30

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2018
Estimated: HKD 60,000 – 120,000
HKD 275,000 / USD 35,035

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed in English, titled in Japanese, dated 1984 and numbered E.A.
An artist’s proof aside from the edition of 30

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Pumpkin (ABE 40)

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Est-Ouest Auctions Hong-Kong: 21 December 2023
Estimated: HKD 180,000 – 280,000
HKD 276,000 / USD 35,355

 YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed, dated and edition in the margin

Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 7 March 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,000,000 – 2,000,000
JPY 2,400,000 (Hammer)
JPY 2,796,000 / USD 26,560

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1984
Lithograph
Signed
From the edition of 30

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2018
Estimated: HKD 60,000 – 120,000
HKD 237,500 / USD 30,260

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed in English, dated 1984 and numbered 11/30

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Pumpkin (ABE 41)

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Phillips New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 44,450

Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 10 December 2021
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 8,300,000 (Hammer)
JPY 9,669,500 / USD 85,290

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1984
Lithograph
Signed
From the edition of 30

Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 25 January 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
JPY 2,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 2,563,000 / USD 23,450

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1984
Lithograph
Signed
Edition: 5/30

Bonhams Los Angeles: 7 May 2019
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 47,575

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed in English, dated 1984 and numbered 9/30

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Pumpkin (ABE 42)

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SBI Art Auction: 24 May 2024
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 5,060,000 / USD 32,229

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin (Kusama 42), 1984
Lithograph
Signed, dated and numbered
From the edition of 30

Est-Ouest Auctions Tokyo: 13 March 2022
Estimated: JPY 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
JPY 6,050,000 / USD 51,760

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed, dated and numbered on the margin

Seoul Auction: 17 April 2020
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 28,000 (Hammer)

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin, 1984
Lithograph
Edition: 21/30

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 1 April 2018
Estimated: HKD 60,000 – 120,000
HKD 212,500 / USD 27,075

YAYOI KUSAMA
PUMPKIN, 1984
Lithograph
Signed in English, dated 1984 and numbered 21/30