Critically acclaimed as a towering figure in contemporary art, Yayoi Kusama is one of today’s most recognised and celebrated artists. Born in the Nagano Prefecture, Kusama experienced vivid hallucinations in her early childhood that the artist claims have haunted her since. In a process that Kusama has termed ‘Self Obliteration’, her visions are fuelled by moving and multiplying dots and patterns that gradually spread to engulf everything around her, including herself. Much of her oeuvre can be traced back to these obsessive neuroses and this sense of obliteration is something you see across her multidisciplinary works.

Executed in 1979, Butterfly expands upon this concept through the spots and patterns that both intermingle and seemingly spill off the paper. At the centre of the composition is a lemon-yellow and green insect-like creature, rendered in delicately applied watercolour strokes. Evoking the work’s title, the insect is framed by curvaceous lines of blue that bear a resemblance to the shape of butterfly wings, drawing to mind the dramatic change a caterpillar must undergo as it transitions through its life cycle. As a highly symbolic creature in Japanese culture, butterflies or ‘chōchō’ are popularly considered to be recently departed spirits who have taken on the form of a butterfly in their journey to eternal life and peace. Having spent her life torn between Japan and the United States dealing with personal upheaval and bouts of mental instability, Kusama’s use of a butterfly motif can also be interpreted as a potent symbol for the artist’s own metamorphosis.

Having been honoured with solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions across the world, Kusama continues to affirm her position as a leading contemporary artist with an upcoming retrospective at Gropius Bau, Berlin (September 2020, postponed to March 2021); as well as upcoming exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2020, to be rescheduled); the New York Botanical Garden (2020, postponed to 2021); and the Tate Modern, London (2021, postponed to 2022).