“Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Giving off an aura of my sacred mental state, they embody a base for the joy of living, a living shared by all of humankind on earth. It is for the pumpkins that I keep on going,” said Yayoi Kusama.
One of the most recognisable images in contemporary art, the pumpkin sits at the heart of Kusama’s practice. It turns up everywhere in her work, from flat canvases and abstract paintings to gallery-wide installations, and remains a favourite with both institutions and private collectors.
This season in Hong Kong, coinciding with Art Basel week, the city's major auction houses are bringing eight of those polka‑dotted pumpkins to market. Christie's kicks off the spring season with two signature yellow pumpkin paintings across its evening and day auctions. Sotheby's evening sale follows with a two‑metre‑tall pumpkin sculpture, along with a canvas featuring the motif with a coiling vine – the only pumpkin painting with this detail ever to appear at auction.
Bonhams, meanwhile, is staging a single‑owner sale of six Kusama works titled More than Red. Its headline lot is a rare red pumpkin canvas – the only large‑scale pumpkin painting of this colour on offer across the Hong Kong spring sales. Running alongside the auction is Great Ego in Infinity, a selling exhibition tracing seven decades of Hsiao Chin’s career.
Marcello Kwan | Head of Modern and Contemporary Art, Asia
Preview for 'MORE THAN RED: A Single Owner Collection of Exceptional Works by Yayoi Kusama' and the selling exhibition 'Hsiao Chin: Great Ego in Infinity' at Bonhams
"Just as Bodhidharma spent ten years facing a stone wall, I spent as much as a month facing a single pumpkin. I regretted even having to take time to sleep," Kusama once said.
Her connection to the pumpkin motif is rooted in childhood. Growing up in central Japan in a family of affluent farm merchants who owned a seed farm, Kusama developed an early fascination with the forms and textures of the agricultural world around her. As a child during the Second World War, she recalls eating pumpkins daily to the point of nausea, yet she retained a deep attachment to their bulbous form.
Already experiencing hallucinations – including pumpkins that spoke to her in animated ways – she came to see them as a familiar, comforting presence: round, full, and resilient, with a robust vitality that belied their unglamorous exterior. Over time, the pumpkin evolved into a spiritual symbol and alter ego, a motif she began incorporating into her dotted works as early as the 1940s.
While they share the same subject, each pumpkin work is a distinct individual. Much like human beings, they have their own personalities and forms: some are elongated, others perfectly round; some tilt slightly to suggest motion, while others sit squarely in quiet composure.
Here are all eight pumpkins heading to auction in the Hong Kong spring sales, from the highest estimate to the lowest.
Lot 29 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, urethane paint on fiberglass reinforced plastic
Executed in 2015, this work is unique
210 x 196 x 196 cm
Provenance:
- David Zwirner, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$40,000,000 - 60,000,000
Auction House: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sale: Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction
Date and Time: 29 March | 6 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 30 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1993
91 x 116.8 cm
Provenance:
- Jean Art Gallery, Seoul
- Private collection, Asia (acquired from the above in 2003)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$32,000,000 - 40,000,000
Auction House: Christie’s Hong Kong
Sale: 20th/21st Century Evening Sale
Date and Time: 27 March | 7 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 25 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, acrylic on canvas
Executed in 1998
53 x 45.5 cm
Provenance:
- MOMA Contemporary, Japan
- Gallery MoMo, Japan
- Christe's, Hong Kong, 1 December 2008, Lot 1031
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$22,000,000 - 40,000,000
Auction House: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sale: Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction
Date and Time: 29 March | 6 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 3 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, acrylic on canvas
Painted in 2000
60 x 72 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Japan
Estimate: HK$15,000,000 - 25,000,000
Auction House: Bonhams Hong Kong
Sale: MORE THAN RED: A Single Owner Collection of Exceptional Works by Yayoi Kusama
Date and Time: 28 March | 6 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 25 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin (8), acrylic on canvas
Executed in 1997
24.2 x 33.3 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection
- Mallet Japan, 26 October 2007, Lot 58
- Private Collection
- Seoul Auction, Seoul, 27 June 2012, Lot 167
- Private Collection
- Seoul Auction, Hong Kong, 26 May 2014, Lot 67
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$5,200,000 - 7,000,000
Auction House: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sale: Contemporary Day Auction
Date and Time: 30 March | 3:30 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 2 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin (8), acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1990
18.2 x 14.2 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Japan
Estimate: HK$2,000,000 - 4,000,000
Auction House: Bonhams Hong Kong
Sale: MORE THAN RED: A Single Owner Collection of Exceptional Works by Yayoi Kusama
Date and Time: 28 March | 6 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 211 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1990
18.2 x 14.2 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection, Japan
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Auction House: Christie’s Hong Kong
Sale: 21st Century Day Sale
Date and Time: 28 March | 4:30 pm (Hong Kong local time)
Lot 1 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Untitled, mixed media sculpture
Painted in 1990
10 x 10 x 9.4 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Japan
Estimate: HK$600,000 - 900,000
Auction House: Bonhams Hong Kong
Sale: MORE THAN RED: A Single Owner Collection of Exceptional Works by Yayoi Kusama
Date and Time: 28 March | 6 pm (Hong Kong local time)