YAYOI KUSAMA

(B. 1929)

Pumpkin
1991

Footnotes

Provenance
Gallery Now, Tokyo
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art Asia, 20 September 2007, Lot 170
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner


Executed in 1991, Pumpkin (1991) by Yayoi Kusama immediately bewitches with verdant green tones, a jewel-like scale, and instantly recognizable composition. Coming to auction from a private collection, this work presents a golden opportunity to own an iconic and highly personal example by an artist at the height of her powers, and a key piece among art history's most well-known motifs.

Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama's family were wealthy merchants who oversaw plant-nurtures and a seed farm. The artist, however, describes her childhood as traumatic, causing her to develop hallucinations. For Kusama, creating art was a way to escape her family, alleviate her anxiety, and take control of her mind. While initially unsupportive of her artistic dreams, her family eventually allowed her to learn the traditional Japanese drawing style of Nihogna, which Kusama found boring and stiff in comparison to the emerging American Abstract Expressionist movement.

Drawn to the promise of stardom, Kusama moved to New York City in the late 1950s, where she initially struggled for recognition. However due to her fervent determination for success, she established herself within the 1960s Avant Garde scene. In 1960s New York, Kusama's contemporaries were legendary Pop artists such as Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein, and she stood out as a foreign female in a male dominated space.

But soon, Pop Art and Kusama would become synonymous. Incorporating everyday objects into Fine Art and thereby transforming them, Pop artists perpetuated the idea that art can draw from any source and used repetition as a metaphor for mass-production. Kusama's use of a humble, everyday vegetable as her key vernacular would be a precursor to the Pop masters who would come after her. As the Campbells soup can was to Andy Warhol, the dotted pumpkin is quintessential Yayoi Kusama. "I love pumpkins," Kusama has explained, "because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child."

The first pumpkin that Kusama saw was at age 11 with her grandfather. When she went to pick it up, she hallucinated that the pumpkin was anthropomorphized, speaking to her and moving. In order to capture her experience, she went home and painted what she saw, subsequently winning a prize for her work. Pumpkins would become Kusama's predominant motif in her paintings and sculpture and shape her creative practice for over 70 years.

The present work is an exceptional example of this theme, and also speaks to Kusama's ability to combine and transcend artistic movements of the late 20th century, including Op Art, Pop Art, and Surrealism. Mirroring the artist's hallucinations of her youth, the intricate geometric arrangement accompanied by dynamic green dots brings the image to life and makes the piece appear fluid and surreal. The impression is left on the viewer that they have experienced something not of this world. Like Salvador Dalí, Kusama has playfully transformed something ordinary into something alien. If one reads the use of this favored gourd as a link to the artist's memories and childhood, then it could be argued that Kusama may have even seen part of herself in their bold yet benevolent form. In a sense, Kusama's Pumpkin series serves as a self-portrait for the artist.

Kusama, now 93 years old, has become a pop culture phenomenon. Admirers have been known to queue for hours to experience her iconic Infinity Rooms, and her museum experiences have attracted millions of visitors worldwide. Her aesthetic bridge of East and West has enabled her to become a global superstar. Exhibiting internationally to acclaim, Kusama has maintained an unsurpassed presence in cultural conversation. Today, her works can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Tate in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, among others.