Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, born 1929), 草間彌生


Pumpkin 1982signed in English, titled in Japanese and dated 1982 on the underside acrylic on wood 33 x 29.5 x 21 cm (13 x 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in)
|This work is accompanied by a registration card issued by Kusama Enterprise, Tokyo.ProvenanceGift from the artist to the present owner in 1983草間彌生南瓜壓克力木雕1982年作底部簽名: Yayoi Kusama 1982 かぼちゃ此作品附東京草間彌生工作所簽發之藝術品註冊卡來源藝術家於1983年贈予現藏家A bulbous yellow pumpkin engulfed with striations of black dots in a box, the present work embodies Kusama's signature dots motif and lifelong fascination for pumpkins. The first time Kusama ever saw a pumpkin was when she was in elementary school, visiting a seed-harvesting ground owned by her grandfather. Amidst a field of gourds, what stood out to young Kusama was a yellow pumpkin the size of a man's head. When she reached for the vine to pluck it, the pumpkin began speaking to her. Initially attracted to the pumpkin's "generous unpretentiousness" that embodied a "solid spiritual balance," her interaction with pumpkins became meditative, in which she would spend up to a month looking at a single pumpkin, "just as Bodhidharma spent ten years facing a stone wall." (the artist in: Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London 2011, p. 75)It wasn't until the 1980s, shortly after Kusama returned to Japan from the New York art world, that she revisited the pumpkin motif that speaks deeply to her soul ever since she was a child. Upon her return to Japan, she voluntarily committed herself to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she set up a studio space in the medical facilities. During this period, many of her pumpkin sculptures were small and with box constructions, perhaps influenced by the contained environment that she was living in. Giving each gourd a distinctive personality, Kusama painted acrylic pumpkins with her iconic dotted patterns, which was a form of self-obliteration marked by her unstable psychological state. As seen in the present work, the repetitive black dots on the bright yellow pumpkin are rhythmic and controlled, which extend to the stem, then scatter into the interior of the box and continue to spread infinitely to all sides of the exterior. Representative of her highly stylized pumpkin box sculptures from a unique period, the present work exudes a child-like joyful presence, highlighting the unpretentious and pure quality of pumpkins that resonated deeply with Kusama ever since her first encounter with a pumpkin. Incorporating the pumpkin motif across various mediums, Kusama created her first Mirror Room (Pumpkin) installation for an exhibition at Fuji Television Gallery and Hara Museum in Tokyo in 1991. Featuring multiple pumpkin sculptures with infinite black dots in a multi-reflective mirrored room, the iconic installation eventually led Kusama to global prominence when it was selected to be exhibited at the 1993 Venice Biennale, in which she became the first artist to represent the Japanese Pavilion. Throughout her career, Kusama consistently revisits the motif over and over again, as seen in her recent recreation of the pumpkin mirror room in 2016, "All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins," which generated record-breaking attendances across major museums in the U.S. and Canada. Kusama's artistic language is deeply rooted in an everlasting nostalgia for pumpkins. As captured by the present work, the pumpkin motif remains as a crucial emblem in Kusama's oeuvre, which is encapsulated in her own words: "It is for the pumpkins that I keep on going." 盒子中圓滾滾的黃色南瓜，上面佈滿一道道黑色波點，這件作品具體表現出草間彌生的標誌性波點主題和其一生對南瓜的著迷。草間彌生在小學時造訪爺爺經營的公司採種場，這是她生平第一次看到南瓜。年幼的她在一片瓜田中看到一顆約莫男人頭顱大小的黃色南瓜，走上前忍不住伸手想從藤蔓摘下來，就在此時南瓜對她開口說話了。起初她看到南瓜「落落大方」的模樣覺得頗為逗趣，好像具有「純粹而穩重的靈性」，後來南瓜成為她冥想的對象，她甘願花上整整一個月的時間觀看一顆南瓜，「就像菩提達摩花十年的時間面對石牆沉思一樣。」然而直到一九八〇年代，草間彌生從紐約藝術界回到日本不久後，才再次探索這個從孩提時代起，靈魂深受召喚的南瓜作為創作主題。此時她自願住進東京的一所精神病院，在工作室中埋首創作。或許是受到居住在封閉環境影響之故，在這期間，她的壓克力南瓜雕塑都不大並附帶盒子。草間彌生賦予每一顆南瓜獨特的性格，在精神不穩定時靠著畫波點作為一種自我消去的方法。如同作品所見，圓點從瓜蒂開始佈滿整個瓜身，蔓延到盒子內部，再無限延續到盒子外。從鮮黃色南瓜上重複性的黑色圓點，看得出強烈的韻律感和聚精會神的掌控力。南瓜盒是草間彌生風格獨具的經典代表作，散發出童真愉悅的氣息與南瓜不造作而純淨的特質，深深呼應了草間彌生初見南瓜的感動。一九九一年，草間彌生在東京原美術館（Hara Museum）和富士電視台畫廊（Fuji Television Gallery）首次展出《鏡屋[南瓜]》。她依據南瓜主題用不同媒材製作了一尊尊黑點南瓜雕塑，放在裝置內折射出無止無盡的鏡像。這件作品後來被選入一九九三年威尼斯雙年展，作為第一個代表日本館的藝術家，她自此打開全球知名度，晉升為重量級藝術家。草間彌生在其創作生涯當中不斷回顧相同主題，例如她在二〇一六年的「我對南瓜所有永恆的愛」（All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins）再次展出南瓜鏡屋，這個展覽在美國和加拿大各大美術館巡迴時，所到之處無不打破參觀紀錄。草間彌生的藝術語彙中埋藏著其對南瓜永恆的懷舊情感，她自承：「為了南瓜，我願意努力下去」，這件作品即貼切地體現出南瓜主題之於草間彌生不可磨滅的重要性。