The 'Naoshima’ Red Pumpkin is a painted lacquer resin abstract sculpture and art object by the legendary Japanese contemporary Artist, Yayoi Kusama. Created in 2019, the polka-dotted piece is a quintessential example of Kusama’s iconic motif, as the pumpkin silhouette has manifested throughout her career in various mediums. The pop art world has welcomed Kusama with open arms as her works are bold, brightly colored, and visually fascinating with a multitude of her famous spots. The melting pumpkin covered with shiny black dots is a miniature version of one of her most well-known installations, modeled after the ‘Akakabocha’ installation in Naoshima, Japan. The ’Naoshima’ Red Pumpkin is of a limited edition, comes in the original box, and measures approximately 3.75 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches.
Yayoi Kusama is a prolific multi-disciplinary contemporary artist, born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929. Kusama began her studies of art at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, where she learned Nihonga, a style of formal, traditional Japanese painting. After six successful solo exhibitions in Japan during her early artistic career, Kusama was inspired by the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States and she moved to New York in 1958. Her eccentric style, consistent artistic motif, and openness about her experience with mental illness contributed to her eccentric public persona as an emerging artist on the rise. Soon after her arrival, she began a new body of work; black and white paintings, sculptures, films, and installations which became the acclaimed ‘Infinity Nets’ series, that translated her hallucinations of being caught in an endless netting. The series captured the attention of the avant-garde and notable established Artist’s of the time, including Donald Judd who later became a close friend of Kusama. During the 1960’s she began to create ‘Accumulations’ her title for immersive installations and large-scale artworks that captivated viewers with American pop art charisma. The polka-dot became her signature symbol, used throughout all of her artworks in many mediums which included drawings, paintings, collage, films, fashion, installations, performances, sculptures and even poetry. In 1993, Kusama was invited to the Venice Biennale to represent Japan, and since then has been the highlight of numerous touring exhibitions across the globe. Featured at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1998, the Le Consortium in Dijon, France in 2000, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Japan in 2004, and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 2008. Kusama was also honored with numerous retrospective shows, showcased at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, and in 2012 the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Kusama as also received numerous awards and honors, including the Asahi Prize in 2001, the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003, and the 18th Praemium Imperiale award for painting in 2006. She also has been the subject of multiple films on her life and work, including the 1967 experimental film, which Kusama produced and starred in, depicting Kusama painting polka dots on everything around her including bodies. In 1991, Kusama starred in the film Tokyo Decadence written and directed by Ryu Murakami, Near Equal Yayoi Kusama: I Adore Myself’ created in 2008, and a documentary film by Takako Matsumoto. She has collaborated with many luxury designers such as Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs and in 2017 the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo. In 2020, the Hirshhorn announced it would debut new Kusama acquisitions, including two Infinity Mirror Rooms, at the upcoming exhibition ‘One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection’. The name of the exhibit is derived from an open letter Kusama wrote to then-President Richard Nixon in 1968, writing: "let’s forget ourselves, dearest Richard, and become one with the absolute, all together in the altogether." In November 2021, a monumental overview of Kusama’s creative periods over the past 70 years, with some 200 works and four Infinity Rooms, including unique mirror installations, debuted at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The retrospective spans across the Museum’s two buildings, in six galleries and includes her latest artworks: ‘A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe’ and ‘Light of the Universe Illuminating the Quest for Truth’. Kusama continues to create her iconic spotted artworks in a variety of inspiring mediums and share her messages with the world in present day with ever-growing popularity, putting her artworks amongst the ranks of master contemporary Artists such as Damien Hirst and pop art icon, Andy Warhol.