PROVENANCE:
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Private collection, Asia.
EXHIBITED:
New Paintings & Sculptures, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom, June 8 - July 29, 2011
Victoria Miro Gallery, Frieze Art Fair, London, United Kingdom, October 13-16, 2011
This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity issued by Victoria Miro Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Plagued from a young age by visual and aural hallucinations, Kusama faces her mental illness candidly in Fruits EPSOB. The flamboyant, playful colors of the piece juxtapose sharply with the jarring effect of the fractured lines which recall the Infinity Nets of Kusama’s early series. Creating a mosaic effect, the two dimensional shapes of each individual fruit take shape in cracked, contrasting simplicity. Complementing the two-dimensional flatness of the nets, Kusama adds dimension and variance by echoing the roundness of some fruits with her iconic polka dots. Grapes and cherries take on new dimensions as their orbicular forms are emphasized by the strategically varied dots. The roundness of the fruit bowl is similarly emphasized through a net of polka dots which combine to envelope the scattered fruits, drawing each of the seemingly antithetical compositional elements together in a harmonious confluence of divergent components. The splintered scene of Fruits EPSOB provides the viewer with a glimpse into the fractured yet ultimately connected visualizations of Yayoi Kusama as the artist reconciles her mental obstacles through her creation of art. “Artists,” states Yayoi Kusama, “do not usually express their own psychological complexes directly. But I use my complexes and fears as subjects.”