PRINTPROVENANCE:
Mainichi Auction, Tokyo, September 15, 2014, Lot 352
Private collection, Asia
This painting is to be sold with a registration card issued by Yayoi Kusama Studio.
Catalogue Note:
'' I cannot live alone in this world. The earth is one world, but the universe is boundless. I believe that my life and death, and the meaning od life itself is but one small existence in the universe. Through art, I want to talk about the mysteries of philosophy and the dignity of life. I want to express my awe of these things in my work. '' －YAYOI KUSAMA
In 2017, Yayoi Kusama’s retrospective exhibition My Eternal Sou was held at the National Art Center in Tokyo. It was Kusama’s largest solo exhibition and marked the 10th anniversary of the gallery’s opening. Kusama’s paintings, sculptures, installations, projections, novels, and other works in various categories from her early career received unprecedented response. In 2015, with the theme of My Mount Fuji , Kusama undertook the challenge of presenting images of Mount Fuji inspired by the ukiyo-e masterpieces of painters Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. The charm of Mount Fuji is einterpreted in the form of contemporary art; the importance of Mount Fuji in the minds of Japanese artists is apparent.
Kusama was introduced to the United States in the late 1950s, when she began to display her cutting-edge avant-garde artistic creations in Seattle, New York, and other cities. Kusama felt that the ''return to humanity'' concept of the emerging 1960s hippie culture was very much in line with her writing; this also launched her period of prominence in New York. At this point, she began using the round dot symbol that once represented neurosis and reinterpreting it as a symbol of love and peace, which she still uses today. She returned to Japan in the late 1970s because of health concerns, and although she was repressed by the more conservative social atmosphere of the time, she continued to produce a large number of works without interruption.
Kusama created this ''Mt. Fuji'' in 1982 during her recuperation in Japan. Mount Fuji appears in the monochrome red that is characteristic of this period. This representation in red and white, Japan’s national colors, is known as ''Red Fuji''. The patterning that typified Kusama’s early works reappears in the cracked pattern of the mountain and the sky, while the bright yellow dots of the drifting clouds bring the image to life. The clear sky is bold and tranquil, both standing out from and integrating perfectly with the colors of the mountains, woods, and earth. The seemingly abrupt coloration of Mount Fuji creates a visual effect of greater breadth and distance. The mountain appears both complementary to and distinct from the houses nearby. Its towering presence represents the awe of life and nature. This exploration of time and universe inspires viewers to ponder the meaning of the things around them, as well as their own existence.
The sky, clouds, mountain, houses and roads are arranged in a small tableau. The mood expressed by this small world exactly expresses the worldviews of Kusama at that time. At that time, Kusama was not defeated by Japan’s conservative critical view and dismissive attitude toward her art; instead, she extended the universal themes of ''universe'', ''death'' and ''love'' into her work, arranging the dots in a three-dimensional fashion to create a richly layered landscape. To create large-scale symbolic objects, she used colorful painting language to construct the living world. After returning to her homeland, Kusama faced Mount Fuji; their mutual gaze is also a confrontation, the meeting of contemporary and traditional.
The backgrounds of Kusama’s works created during the early 1980s are full of fine perforations. The subjects of the images are mostly concrete objects, from pumpkins and high-heeled shoes to cakes, dresses, Mount Fuji, ashtrays, and all manner of items. In these works, there is no such obsessional anxiety at all, but rather a sense of Kusama’s interest in and unconditional love for the object itself. This laid the foundation for Kusama’s subsequent creation of the large-scale Pumpkins series during the 1990s. The appearance of Pumpkins was no coincidence. Kusama builds on the foundation of the re-creations and separations of her many observations of life over the preceding periods, using the universally-beloved image of the pumpkin to bring together love, warmth, and dots, conveying a message of love.
Mainichi Auction, Tokyo, September 15, 2014, Lot 352
Private collection, Asia
This painting is to be sold with a registration card issued by Yayoi Kusama Studio.
Catalogue Note:
'' I cannot live alone in this world. The earth is one world, but the universe is boundless. I believe that my life and death, and the meaning od life itself is but one small existence in the universe. Through art, I want to talk about the mysteries of philosophy and the dignity of life. I want to express my awe of these things in my work. '' －YAYOI KUSAMA
In 2017, Yayoi Kusama’s retrospective exhibition My Eternal Sou was held at the National Art Center in Tokyo. It was Kusama’s largest solo exhibition and marked the 10th anniversary of the gallery’s opening. Kusama’s paintings, sculptures, installations, projections, novels, and other works in various categories from her early career received unprecedented response. In 2015, with the theme of My Mount Fuji , Kusama undertook the challenge of presenting images of Mount Fuji inspired by the ukiyo-e masterpieces of painters Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. The charm of Mount Fuji is einterpreted in the form of contemporary art; the importance of Mount Fuji in the minds of Japanese artists is apparent.
Kusama was introduced to the United States in the late 1950s, when she began to display her cutting-edge avant-garde artistic creations in Seattle, New York, and other cities. Kusama felt that the ''return to humanity'' concept of the emerging 1960s hippie culture was very much in line with her writing; this also launched her period of prominence in New York. At this point, she began using the round dot symbol that once represented neurosis and reinterpreting it as a symbol of love and peace, which she still uses today. She returned to Japan in the late 1970s because of health concerns, and although she was repressed by the more conservative social atmosphere of the time, she continued to produce a large number of works without interruption.
Kusama created this ''Mt. Fuji'' in 1982 during her recuperation in Japan. Mount Fuji appears in the monochrome red that is characteristic of this period. This representation in red and white, Japan’s national colors, is known as ''Red Fuji''. The patterning that typified Kusama’s early works reappears in the cracked pattern of the mountain and the sky, while the bright yellow dots of the drifting clouds bring the image to life. The clear sky is bold and tranquil, both standing out from and integrating perfectly with the colors of the mountains, woods, and earth. The seemingly abrupt coloration of Mount Fuji creates a visual effect of greater breadth and distance. The mountain appears both complementary to and distinct from the houses nearby. Its towering presence represents the awe of life and nature. This exploration of time and universe inspires viewers to ponder the meaning of the things around them, as well as their own existence.
The sky, clouds, mountain, houses and roads are arranged in a small tableau. The mood expressed by this small world exactly expresses the worldviews of Kusama at that time. At that time, Kusama was not defeated by Japan’s conservative critical view and dismissive attitude toward her art; instead, she extended the universal themes of ''universe'', ''death'' and ''love'' into her work, arranging the dots in a three-dimensional fashion to create a richly layered landscape. To create large-scale symbolic objects, she used colorful painting language to construct the living world. After returning to her homeland, Kusama faced Mount Fuji; their mutual gaze is also a confrontation, the meeting of contemporary and traditional.
The backgrounds of Kusama’s works created during the early 1980s are full of fine perforations. The subjects of the images are mostly concrete objects, from pumpkins and high-heeled shoes to cakes, dresses, Mount Fuji, ashtrays, and all manner of items. In these works, there is no such obsessional anxiety at all, but rather a sense of Kusama’s interest in and unconditional love for the object itself. This laid the foundation for Kusama’s subsequent creation of the large-scale Pumpkins series during the 1990s. The appearance of Pumpkins was no coincidence. Kusama builds on the foundation of the re-creations and separations of her many observations of life over the preceding periods, using the universally-beloved image of the pumpkin to bring together love, warmth, and dots, conveying a message of love.