Yayoi Kusama - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 15, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Robert Miller Gallery, New York

  • Exhibited


    Peekskill, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Symbolic Space, June 2004 - April 2005

  • Catalogue Essay


    Nothing can be separated out of the overall surface imagery, which reinforces the matter-of-fact acceptance of a world in which divergent activities coexist. In this sense Kusama’s compulsively covered furniture is not just the reproduction or manipulation of existing familiar objects, but a transformation of them into a meaningful world of female experience, rendered transparent in this new form. The accumulations of phallus-like shapes which characterize Kusama’s other furniture sculptures as well as her environments, are vivid manifestations of a visionary woman capable of perceiving new artistic forms.
    The meaning of many Kusama’s works may not only concern women in a male-dominated, phallocentric world, but the survival of woman and the transcendence of gender into a wider, cosmic perspective. When asked in 1964 to interpret her title, Driving Image, Kusama confided: “I am deeply terrified by the obsessions crawling over my body, whether they come from within me or from outside. I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality.” She added: “I, myself, delight in my obsessions.” U. Kultermann, Yayoi Kusama, London, 2000, pp. 91-92

  • Artist Biography

    Yayoi Kusama

    Japanese

    Named "the world's most popular artist" in 2015, it's not hard to see why Yayoi Kusama continues to dazzle contemporary art audiences globally. From her signature polka dots—"fabulous," she calls them—to her mirror-and-light Infinity Rooms, Kusama's multi-dimensional practice of making art elevates the experience of immersion. To neatly pin an artistic movement onto Kusama would be for naught: She melds and transcends the aesthetics and theories of many late twentieth century movements, including Pop Art and Minimalism, without ever taking a singular path.

    As an octogenarian who still lives—somewhat famously—in a psychiatric institution in Tokyo and steadfastly paints in her immaculate studio every day, Kusama honed her punchy cosmic style in New York City in the 1960s. During this period, she staged avant-garde happenings, which eventually thrust her onto the international stage with a series of groundbreaking exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1980s and the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. She continues to churn out paintings and installations at inspiring speed, exhibiting internationally in nearly every corner of the globe, and maintains a commanding presence on the primary market and at auction.

    View More Works

142

In the Mid Afternoon

1998

Gold paint, wicker chair, table, fabric, artificial flowers, plastic grapes, plastic cups, bottle opener, and rubber lizard.
 

41 x 36 x 42 in. (104.1 x 91 x 106.7 cm) chair; 27 x 16 3/8 x 15 1/2 in. (68.6 x 41.6 x 39.4 cm) table. Installation dimensions variable.

Signed, titled and dated “Yayoi Kusama ‘In the Mid Afternoon’ 1998” on the reverse of chair and on the underside of chair and table.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $181,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 May 2008, 7pm
New York