Flowers and Butterflies
Medium: Screen-print in colors on Izumi paper
[14 screens, 13 colors, 14 runs]
Year: 1989
Image: 52.8 x 43.8 cm (20.8 x 17.2 inches)
Sheet: 61 x 53.5 cm (24 x 21.1 inches)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 8 AP
Printer: Ishida Ryoichi, Tokyo
Literature: ABE 122
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 122, Illustrated page 80
Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge
Flowers and Butterflies presents a compact yet richly layered composition that brings together several of Kusama’s most enduring motifs: flowers, pumpkins, polka dots, nets, and butterflies. At the center, a bulbous yellow pumpkin form, densely covered with black dots, anchors the image. From it rise green stems supporting three red, heart-shaped flowers, each marked by a white, dotted pistil. The scene unfolds against a deep blue ground animated by flowing, amoeba-like lines, while a red-and-white checkerboard border frames the image with graphic clarity.
Formally, the work operates on contrast and repetition. The yellow polka-dotted central form recalls Kusama’s pumpkins, both visually and conceptually: organic, weighted, and obsessively marked. The sinuous blue background evokes her Infinity Nets, translated here into a more decorative, almost rhythmic pattern. The butterflies, carefully placed, introduce a sense of movement and ephemerality, counterbalancing the grounded, almost sculptural presence of the central plant.
Produced in 1989, this print belongs to a period in which Kusama was increasingly consolidating her visual language into recognizable, highly legible images. After decades of experimentation, from New York’s avant-garde scene in the 1960s to her return to Japan, she refined a vocabulary that could move seamlessly across painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Conceptually, the work oscillates between joy and fixation. Flowers and butterflies traditionally symbolize life, renewal, and fragility, yet Kusama’s obsessive patterning complicates any purely lyrical reading. The dots do not merely decorate, they consume surfaces, asserting her lifelong exploration of self-obliteration through repetition. The checkerboard border reinforces this tension, imposing order while visually containing the exuberance of the interior scene. Within Kusama’s printed oeuvre, Flowers and Butterflies stands as a clear example of her late-20th-century graphic maturity: immediately recognizable, meticulously composed, and emblematic of her ability to merge personal psychology with universal symbols. It is precisely this balance—between accessibility and conceptual depth—that has made works from this period enduringly appealing to both collectors and institutions.
Auction Results
SBI Art Auction: 24 January 2026
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 4,600,000 / USD 29,695
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies (Kusama 122), 1989
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 100
Printed by Ishida Ryoichi
SBI Art Auction: 27 January 2024
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 5,520,000 / USD 37,252
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies (Kusama 122), 1989
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 100
SBI Art Auction: 26 May 2023
Estimated: JPY 2,500,000 – 3,500,000
JPY 4,370,000 / USD 31,215
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies (Kusama 122), 1989
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 100
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 29 April 2023
Estimated: JPY 3,000,000 – 4,000,000
JPY 5,290,000 / USD 38,825
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies, 1989
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100
Seoul Auction: 23 August 2022
Estimated: KRW 60,000,000 – 75,000,000
KRW 71,980,000 / USD 53,570
AUCTION RECORD FOR FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies, 1989
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 26/100
SBI Art Auction: 31 October 2020
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 3,105,000 / USD 29,670
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies (Kusama 122), 1989
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 100
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 4 July 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
JPY 2,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 2,563,000 / USD 23,840
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies, 1989
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100
Mainichi Auction Tokyo: 19 January 2019
Estimated: JPY 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
JPY 3,000,000 (Hammer)
JPY 3,495,000 / USD 31,840
YAYOI KUSAMA
Flowers and Butterflies, 1989
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100