One of the most esoteric artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, Yayoi Kusama uses polka dots, infinite nets, pumpkins, and all manner of other mediums to display the inner workings of her mind in the form of art. Her work has been both critically and financially well-received, with the combined total of sales at auction making her the highest-selling artist of 2023.
This year the value and interest in her art have not declined at all, with Poly China featuring three Kusama works as part of their Modern and Contemporary Art sale, happening on 27 November. The top-selling one was a signature Kusama painting of a pumpkin, this one featuring a two-tone black and yellow color scheme and her signature polka dots and “infinity nets” motifs, which sold for HK$12 million (around US$1.54 million), including the commission.
It was followed by another black and yellow Kusama painting and a sculpture that was inspired by her fashion style while she lived in New York. Overall, there were 73 lots, with 60 of them being sold, leading to an 82.1% sell rate and a sale total of HK$47,000,400 (over US$6 million).
Lot 113 | Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) | Pumpkin, Acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1991
38.2 x 45.6 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Asia
- Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 April 2015, Lot 833
- Acquired from the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$12,000,000 - 13,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$10,000,000
Sold: HK$12,000,000 (around US$1.54 million)
This lot was won by Poly Auction’s Modern and Contemporary Art Director Ya Wei Lin, on behalf of his client on the phone with the paddle number 1027. After bidding was opened at HK$9.5 million, Lin secured the lot for his client with the hammer price of HK$10 million, HK$12 million after commissions.
One of the most common motifs, or mediums, that Yayoi Kusama uses to display her art is the pumpkin. According to Kusama, the humble gourd has fascinated her since childhood, stating that “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.”
Pumpkins also have a deeper significance to Kusama from a more psychological level. Once the subject of an academic paper titled “Genius Woman Artist With Schizophrenic Tendency,” Kusama often reflects or encapsulates an aspect of her mental health. In the case of pumpkins, she first saw one when she was 11 and with her grandfather. When she picked up the pumpkin, Kusama said it spoke to her, potentially a reference to her audiovisual hallucinations that have long influenced her work.
Yayoi Kusama with a large pumpkin, an important motif in her work
In this specific work, Kusama is able to combine both the polka dot pumpkin and her “infinity net” design, which surrounds the pumpkin. “Infinity nets” are seen as an evolution of Kusama’s polka dots, and they originated following Kusama’s move to America in 1957.
For her, the nets and dots in tandem express her ideas of self-obliteration, as anything they touch loses its inherent individualism, becoming part of a greater whole. There is also a theme of becoming part of the greater infinity that is the universe returning to nothingness, which is reflected in Kusama’s ideas of obliteration and “infinity nets” and dots, an idea highlighted in her 1968 movie Kusama's Self-Obliteration.
This work, which features Kusama’s hardy pumpkin and ideas of self-obliteration, creates an interesting mesh of beliefs and motifs that Kusama’s art has long reflected. In a way, the reflection of the bright pumpkin on the darker background makes it appear as a shining beacon or point within “obliteration” itself.
Yayoi Kusama in the late 1980s
Lot 111 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Flower, Acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1999
22.3 x 27.5 cm
Provenance:
- Gallery Art Composition, Tokyo, Japan
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$2,000,000 -3,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,800,000
Sold: HK$3,360,000 (around US$431,807)
Bidding opened for this lot at HK$1.9 million, with a commission bidder. A brief bidding war then ensued between auctioneers representing their clients on the phone, which dragged the price of the lot well above its low estimate. It was eventually won by Specialist Gigi Zhao on behalf of her client with the paddle number 1274. The client paid a hammer price of HK$2.8 million, but after the commission and fees, it will come out to HK$3.36 million (around US$431,807).
In two firsts for Yayoi Kusama at auction, this painting, Flower, appeared at auction. It is also the only known Kusama painting that features a flower basket with a yellow and black color scheme. Many of her other flower-centric paintings, another motif of hers, feature black but with an array of other colors that more accurately depict the colorful nature of plants; this is the only one with this two-tone, rather striking color combination.
Like pumpkins, flowers have significant links to Kusama’s childhood, as Kusama’s parents ran a plant nursery in pre-war Japan. To Kusama, flowers have come to symbolize a variety of polar opposite topics: life and death, masculinity and femininity, and celebration and mourning. They are fragile things, according to Kusama, and their repetitiveness in nature is what makes them special.
Much of Kusama’s earliest artistic inspiration came from the large fields of chrysanthemums near her family’s home, with them inspiring her earliest sketches and drawings. When she moved to America in the 1960s, the anti-war movement was in full swing, with flowers again being a recurring image during the protests. Ever since, they have continued to appear in her art.
A young Yayoi Kusama in the 1930s pictured with flowers
Lot 113 | Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) | Untitled, Mixed media sculpture
Executed in 1983
27 x 30 x 14.1 cm
Estimate: HK$ 300,000 - 600,000
Hammer Price: HK$250,000
Sold: HK$300,000 (US$38,554)
The Yayoi Kusama sculpture, which was sold during the auction, went to a commission bidder who placed a bid of HK$250,000. After fees, the total price of the lot came to HK$300,000 (around US$38,554).
The lot, while lacking her signature motifs, does represent her taste in fashion. Designed in the shape of a cloche hat, an item once popular in the 1920s, it’s reflective of her time in New York City in the 1960s, where she often did performance art and, worse, various hats. In these events, she frequently protested social issues, including famously against the Vietnam War during the Nixon era.
During this period in New York, Kusama also founded a fashion brand called Kusama Fashion Company Ltd., established in 1968. Her fashion was considered highly avant-garde and popular, even with former First Lady Jackie Kennedy. Her line also had its own section known as “Kusama’s Corner” inside the iconic Bloomingdale's department store.
Even when Kusama returned to Japan later in the century, she continued to feature hats as a component of her art. Including her famous painting Red Hat (1982), which featured a red hat covered in polka dots and surrounded by “infinite nets.”
Kusama in New York City wearing a hat during the 1960s
Other Highlighted Lots:
Lot 125 | Huang Yuxing (b. 1975) | Ling•Yin, Acrylic on canvas
Painted between 2016-2019
200.5 x 320 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Asia
Estimate: HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,600,000
Sold: HK$4,320,000 (around US$5.55 million)
Lot 130 | Zheng Fanzhi (b. 1964) | Untitled, Oil on Canvas
Painted in 2010
160 x 230 cm
Provenance:
- Acquired directly from the artist
Estimate: HK$2,600,000 - 3,600,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,850,000
Sold: HK$3,420,000 (around US$439,518)
Lot 126 | Hao Liang (b.1983) | The Scroll of Tens of Thousands of Rocks, Ink and colour on silk, hand scroll
Painted in 2014
33.3 x 442.4 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Asia
Estimate: HK$2,480,000 - 4,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,480,000
Sold: HK$2,976,000 (around US$382,457)
Auction Information:
Auction House: Poly Auction Hong Kong
Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art
Date: 27 November 2024
Total Lots: 73
Lots Sold: 60
Sell rate: 82.1%
Lots Unsold/Withdrawn: 13
Sale Total: HK$47,000,400 (over US$6 million)