“Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood. They speak to me of the joy of living. They are humble and amusing at the same time, and I have and always will celebrate them in my art.”
—Yayoi Kusama

Forging an Iconic Motif

 

Now seen as utterly synonymous with the artist herself, the bright yellow pumpkin is undoubtedly Yayoi Kusama’s most iconic motif, its roots deeply seated in her artistic oeuvre and biography. Born in 1929, Kusama grew up on her family’s seed farm in Matsumoto, Nagano, a rural provincial town in central Japan. The artist, who voluntarily has lived in a psychiatric facility in Tokyo since 1977, traces her lifelong experience with visual and auditory hallucinations as well as obsessive neurosis to these formative years of her childhood. However, while the accumulating flowers or other talking plants encountered in these visions threatened to overwhelm and obliterate her, the gourd represented an altogether more comforting personae, established in her earliest encounter with a pumpkin in elementary school which ‘immediately began speaking to me in a most animated manner.’ⁱ

 

To express and process these disturbing yet fascinating experiences, Kusama sought refuge in art. The naturally recurring forms and patterns embedded in the landscape of Kusama’s childhood home quickly seeped into her visual repertoire. However, unlike the more terrifying aspects of her visions, the pumpkin still engenders feelings of peace and solidity. As she explains: ‘I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form. What appealed to me most was the pumpkin's generous unpretentiousness. That and its solid spiritual balance.'ⁱⁱ Kusama produced her first Kabocha (Pumpkin) as early as 1946 when she was still in her teens, although it was in the early 1980s that the motif became more firmly established in her visual language as she developed a highly stylised series of Pumpkin paintings, the yellow and black polka-dotted gourds set against net-like backgrounds. It was during this period that the pumpkin evolved into what it is today: Kusama’s most recognisable symbol.

 

Painted in 2006, Kusama’s Pumpkin stands within the legacy of her career-long exploration of the motif. The yellow gourd floats in the centre of the composition, occupying nearly the entirety of the canvas. Skilfully painted black dots reduce in size as they near each undulating curve of the form, adding optical dimension to its bulbous shape. The bright yellow pumpkin contrasts excellently with Kusama’s characteristic net-like background, recalling these earlier 1980s works. With its unique and animated form, Pumpkin exudes joy and stability, grounding viewers in its ‘unpretentious’ simplicity.

Setting the Stage: Kusama’s Rise to Global Prominence

 

In the 1990s, it was the humble pumpkin that set the stage for Kusama’s rise on the international art scene. She created her momentous Mirror Room (Pumpkin) installation in 1991 at the Hara Museum in Tokyo. The presentation of this immersive installation garnered significant attention, resulting in her invitation to exhibit at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Kusama was the first female artist to be honoured with a solo exhibition in the Japanese Pavillion, ushering in a new era of international recognition and critical acclaim for the artist. Fittingly, the yellow pumpkin was central to this presentation Upon entering Mirror Room (Pumpkin), viewers enter the mind of the artist, confronted with infinite mirrored reflections of Kusama’s legendary pumpkin and polka dot motifs.

 

Throughout the 2000s, Kusama finally achieved the international and critical acclaim that had proved more difficult to secure in the white, male-dominated art world of 1960s New York. Immediately recognisable and the subject of major retrospectives and sold-out shows, in more recent decades Kusama has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Asahi Prize in 2001, the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003, and the 18^th Praemium Imperiale Award for painting in 2006. In 2012, she had her first collaboration with global fashion house Louis Vuitton, which recently marked its second iteration in 2023. Kusama’s work has undoubtedly transcended the art world, making her one of the most widely loved and globally recognised cultural icons of the 21^st century.

Dots and Nets and Pumpkins, oh my!

 

What sets Kusama apart from her contemporaries is her unique ability to evade labels: she is not a minimalist, an expressionist, or a pop artist. She has transcended genres to occupy a space in contemporary art entirely her own. An interdisciplinary artist from the outset, Kusama works across sculpture, installation, painting, design, and performance art and yet this diverse practice remains anchored in a few highly charged and potent motifs. Kusama’s 2006 Pumpkin recalls not just the iconic image of a yellow gourd but also her recognisable polka dot and Infinity Net motifs. It is a perfect marriage between her three most significant visual themes, coalesced into a single painting.

 

Collector’s Digest

 

• Yayoi Kusama has been the subject of major global retrospectives, including recent and forthcoming exhibitions at Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland (October 2025-January 2027); the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia (December 2024-April 2025); and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (October 2023-May 2024).
   

• Kusama is regularly considered the most popular living artist and was the highest selling contemporary artist in 2023, achieving $80.9 million at auction
   

• In 1993, Kusama became the first female artist honoured with a solo exhibition in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

 

 

ⁱ Yayoi Kusama quoted in Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p. 76.

ⁱⁱ Yayoi Kusama quoted in Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London, 2011, p. 76.