PRINTPROVENANCE:
Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner
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Key-Chan
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2008 FRP, paint (unique) 130(L) x 56(W) x 100(H) cm Signed Yayoi Kusama and titled KEY-CHAN in English, and dated 2008 |
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Estimate
3,600,000 - 5,000,000 918,000 - 1,276,000 118,200 - 164,200
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Sold Price
3,600,000 895,522 115,644
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PROVENANCE:
Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Catalogue Note:
Yayoi Kusama is one of the most influential artists in Japan today, and she and Yoko Ono Lennon were acclaimed as the two brightest stars in the art circle in the twentieth century. Whether the medium is painting, sculpture, behavioral performance, or fiction writing, the works of Yayoi Kusama are all outstanding and avant-garde. She paints nonstop every day. Her extraordinary willpower overcomes the torments of body and mind. By creating, she exercises self-redemption and healing. Polka dots in high saturation, high contrast colors has almost become her trademark. She is known as “the polka dot queen”.
In her autobiography, she wrote, “My life, a dot: one of a million particles. A white net of nothingness composed of an astronomical aggregation of connected dots will obliterate me and others, and the whole of the universe.” Her compositions of rampant polka dots stimulates a marvelous visual aesthetics and space for imagination and inspire the younger generation of contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami, and even cross into the fashion world influencing contemporary fashion trends.
After 1990, Yayoi Kusama created outdoor sculptures and decorative pieces for museums, art festivals, and exhibitions. Among these works, celebrated pieces include pumpkin sculptures and the post-millennium “Hi, Konnichiwa (Hello) series” featuring sculptures of large-scale plants, flowers, girls, and puppies. The surface of each work is covered with “polka dots” in bright colors in a very strong style. This piece, Polka Dot Puppy, is one of the sculpture works included in the 2009 Victoria Miro Gallery Garden Sculpture Exhibition in London. There was a pair of puppy sculptures of which the taller one is called Key-Chan and the smaller one Rhu-Chan. Chan refers to “small” or “dear” in Japanese. Yayoi Kusama is truly a child at heart, which is why she named her puppy sculptures with cute nicknames such as Key-Chan and Rhu-Chan. There are different colors in the “Polka Dot Puppy” series, and as their names imply, each puppy sculpture is unique.
In her autobiography, she wrote, “My life, a dot: one of a million particles. A white net of nothingness composed of an astronomical aggregation of connected dots will obliterate me and others, and the whole of the universe.” Her compositions of rampant polka dots stimulates a marvelous visual aesthetics and space for imagination and inspire the younger generation of contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami, and even cross into the fashion world influencing contemporary fashion trends.
After 1990, Yayoi Kusama created outdoor sculptures and decorative pieces for museums, art festivals, and exhibitions. Among these works, celebrated pieces include pumpkin sculptures and the post-millennium “Hi, Konnichiwa (Hello) series” featuring sculptures of large-scale plants, flowers, girls, and puppies. The surface of each work is covered with “polka dots” in bright colors in a very strong style. This piece, Polka Dot Puppy, is one of the sculpture works included in the 2009 Victoria Miro Gallery Garden Sculpture Exhibition in London. There was a pair of puppy sculptures of which the taller one is called Key-Chan and the smaller one Rhu-Chan. Chan refers to “small” or “dear” in Japanese. Yayoi Kusama is truly a child at heart, which is why she named her puppy sculptures with cute nicknames such as Key-Chan and Rhu-Chan. There are different colors in the “Polka Dot Puppy” series, and as their names imply, each puppy sculpture is unique.