KUSAMA YAYOI Pumpkin

• LOT

  1813

• Artist

  KUSAMA YAYOI ( 1929 - 2026 )

• Estimate

  600,000 - 1,200,000 26,087 - 52,174 30,000 - 60,000 120,000 - 240,000 3,750 - 7,500

  JPY RMB HKD TWD USD

• Result

  Members only

• Details

  mixed media　　1993
  signed on the bottom
  Provenance:
  1. gifted by the artist during the Venice Biennale, 1993
  2. Lougher Contemporary, Bristol, UK
  3. acquired from the above by the present owner
  
  KUSAMA YAYOI was one of the most prominent avant-garde artists of postwar Japan, known for her diverse body of work spanning painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and literature. In 1957, she moved alone to the United States and began working in New York. During the 1960s, she gained attention for her use of polka dots and repetitive motifs, while engaging with artistic and social currents such as minimalism, pop art, feminism, and anti-war activism, and gradually earned international acclaim.
  Kusama's works frequently feature repeated motifs such as polka dots, net patterns, and pumpkins. These visual elements are closely connected to the hallucinations, obsessive imagery, and repetitive visions she experienced from childhood. They blur the boundaries between self and universe, reality and fantasy, creating immersive experiences. Kusama repeatedly spoke of the vital role that art played in her life and creative practice.
  Her works are housed in major institutions around the world, including the Dallas Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka. Kusama is regarded as one of the most renowned and influential artists of the contemporary era.
  
  Kusama Yayoi's "Pumpkin" is one of her signature motifs, recurring throughout her paintings, sculptures, and installations. In 1993, Kusama represented Japan at the 45th Venice Biennale, where she presented Mirror Room (Pumpkin) at the Japan Pavilion. The exhibition marked an important moment in the international reevaluation of Kusama's work. Created in the same year, the present work is a miniature "Pumpkin" gifted by the artist herself during the Venice Biennale. Its bright yellow surface is covered with black polka dots of varying sizes, and despite its extremely small scale, the work condenses the distinctive formal characteristics of Kusama's "Pumpkin"through its rounded form and the repetition of dots and color.
  
  H:2.8cm D:3.0cm
  (H:1 ⅛ in. D:1 ⅛ in.)　

• Organizer

  Jo's Auction

• Auction

  Jo’s Auction Autumn Auction of Art Works 2026

• Catalog

  Contemporary Art/Modern&Post-War Art

• Date

  2026/10/21