Yayoi Kusama - KYOBAI, Japanese Art and Culture London Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo

  • Catalogue Essay

    Dismantling and accumulating, proliferating and separating, the sense of obliterating and the sounds from the invisible cosmos. What are all these things? The concept of infinity in Kusama's art links with a philosophy of repetition and with the field of kinetic experimentation that she has been exploring since 1965. The infinity in which, through her obsessive motifs, Kusama continually relates and which appears to have fundamental significance for her art, acting as a particular sort of self-therapy (in the place of psychoanalysis), is not so much a concept, but rather the search for a domain (unfortunately forever just beyond the field of our perception)  whose visualisation requires of the artist the creation of ever new forms in installation. In Kusama's painting infinity is suggested through motifs of potential limitlessness and repetition, as well as through the huge format of her canvasses. Nets in its essence therefore is nothing more than pure expression of potential infinity and thus is a genuine materialisation of a surface with the potential for unlimited existence.
    Zacheta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Exhibition Catalogue, Yayoi Kusama,Warsaw, 2004, pp. 111-113

  • 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.

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, TOKYO

102

Original Infinity Nets

2000

Acrylic on canvas.

73 x 61 cm. (28 3/4 x 24 in).
Signed, titled and dated on the reverse. Accompanied by registration card from the Kusama Studio.

Estimate
£25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for £36,500

KYOBAI, Japanese Art and Culture

3 Apr 2008, 6pm
London