A monumentally arresting work of radiating brilliance, Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin manifests Yayoi Kusama’s paradigmatic pumpkin motif in an exceptional form that straddles two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional sculpture. A towering vision standing at over two metres tall, Kusama transforms the humble gourd into a mesmerising jewel. Delicately encrusted in thousands of glistening tiles that blaze with a kaleidoscopic solar intensity, the present work is an exceedingly rare iteration of the artist’s most quintessential subject. Bringing together the artist’s signature pattern and favourite shape, Pumpkin is a treasure of museum-quality - indeed making its debut at the artist’s extensive retrospective at The National Art Center, Japan, in 2017 - which magnificently encapsulates Kusama’s dexterous skill and meticulous technique, as well as the singular vision that drives her legendary career. Distinguished from other iterations for its mosaic surface, it is the first from Kusama’s tiled-relief series of pumpkin sculptures to ever come to auction.

An effulgent tribute to the artist’s painstaking dedication and emblematic craftsmanship, the sculpture is utterly absorbings for its dazzling optical illusion and monumental presence. The prismatic patterns of shining tiles which illuminate the surface of the pearlescent black pumpkin recreate the tessellated net patterning that has characterised Kusama’s work for decades. Here, Kusama’s signature Infinity Nets are replaced by stunningly bright and dazzling ceramic pieces, yet the resultant whole maintains her obsessive and mesmerising evocation of infinity, as the multitude of tiny squares rhythmically expand across the monumental undulating surface uninterruptedly. Bridging the artist’s celebrated pumpkin paintings and her freestanding sculptures, the present work encapsulates all of the artist’s major motifs in tessellated vibrancy. The mirrored surfaces of the mosaic tiles, much like Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms, are continually receptive to changes in light and environment, suggesting the never-ending expanse of the universe, a profound concept that forms the theoretical basis for her artistic practice and epitomises her inimitable style. The shifting purples, blue and blacks of the pumpkins body is contrasted with the bold yellow polka dots which wrap around the pumpkins form. Set against an electric red Infinity Net, itself formed through thousands of tiles, the curvaceous form of the pumpkin emerges with a dazzlingly visual narrative that recalls the hypnotic illusions of Op Art.

Similarly, the hearty, earthy pumpkin represents Kusama’s quintessential subject matter. An intensely personal and autobiographical shape for the artist, it has become a kind of self-portrait for the artist. Explaining the appeal of the Japanese pumpkin, or kabocha, Kusama has said, “I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form. What appealed to me most was the pumpkin’s generous unpretentiousness. That and its solid spiritual balance”(Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, London 2011, p. 76). A fascination that has extended from her earliest childhood, these pumpkins provided the initial inspiration for her signature pattern, the expanse of dots developing as a stylized version of the kabocha’s natural markings. Kusama has pursued the motif across myriad colours, scales, and media, and spent decades following it to the extreme logic exemplified here. Despite the commonality of Kusama’s most fertile subject, which the artist believes does “not do not inspire much respect” (Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, London 2011), Kusama elevates the Pumpkin to the status of a holy relic – a rich, dynamic, and deeply introspective work of resplendent brilliance.

Instilled with a dynamic energy that animates the entire work through its pattern of glittering ceramic tiles in electric hues, Pumpkin exudes a fierce vitality and abundance. A particularly distinctive creation straddling the realms of painting and sculpture, the present work is utterly absorbings for its dazzling optical illusion and monumental presence. Characterised by her ability to express the dialectic relationship between infinite and finite space, Kusama’s meditative practise of repetition is at once profoundly personal, and universally admired. Weaving together deeply imaginative iconography with a mediative exactitude, Kusama’s pumpkins are a consummate example of the career of one of the twenty-first century’s most iconic artists.

《南 瓜》尺寸恢宏，閃耀奪目光彩，它介乎於平面繪畫與立體雕塑之間，以獨具一格的形式展現草間彌生的經典南瓜。本作高逾兩米，數千枚閃閃發光的瓷磚鑲功精細，散射如萬花筒般變幻絢麗的虹彩光輝，將平凡不過的南瓜變成炫目迷人的閃亮珠寶，是草間以另一形式演繹最典型主題南瓜的珍罕之作。本作結合草間的標誌性圖案和她最喜愛的造型，堪為博物館級鉅作。2017年，本作於日本國立新美術館為草間舉行的大型回顧展首次亮相，完美體現草間純熟精湛的創作技巧，以及奠定她傳奇藝術成就的獨特視野。有別於草間的其他南瓜作品，本作表面鑲嵌閃亮的馬賽克瓷磚，是草間的瓷磚浮雕南瓜系列中首件登上拍場的作品。

本作氣勢磅礡，呈現線條和色彩隨閃光移動的視錯覺，引人入勝，草間以費神勞力的手法和精湛工藝，向南瓜致以光彩耀眼的敬意。閃亮瓷磚拼成的菱格紋，映襯著散發珠光色澤的黑色南瓜，重塑了數十年來見於草間作品的經典代表符號。雖然草間的標誌性「無限網」改以閃亮奪目的小片瓷磚拼貼而成，但作品整體可見草間仍沉迷展現無限延伸的迷人意象，無數小片瓷磚在起伏不平的廣闊表面一直擴展，盡情表現律動有致的節奏感。本作結合草間深受喜愛的南瓜繪畫和南瓜雕塑，以密鋪圖案的手法總括她所有重大主題所能展現的澎湃活力。其中馬賽克瓷磚的折射鏡面就像草間的《無限鏡房》，不斷展現光線和環境變化，意味宇宙浩瀚無垠，永無止盡，這個重要概念也就是構成她創作的理論基礎，形成她獨一無二的個人風格。黑色南瓜閃耀著紫色和藍色的虹光，與順著南瓜形狀加入的亮黃色圓點形成鮮明對比。在由數以千枚小瓷磚拼成、鮮亮明豔的紅色無限網烘托下，南瓜的圓潤曲線更顯迷人，各種炫目的視覺語彙令人聯想到歐普藝術的錯視幻象。

同樣地，飽滿樸實的南瓜作為草間的典型主題，它的造型與草間本人和她的自身經歷有非常密切的關係，並已成為草間一種類近於自畫像的自我描繪。草間曾解釋南瓜的吸引力，她表示：「我被它們迷人的外型所吸引，南瓜的吸引之處在於大方而不造作，而且有強大的精神安定感」（草間彌生，《無限網：草間彌生自傳》，倫敦，2011年，頁76）。她自幼就對南瓜非常著迷，啟發她最初創作標誌南瓜圖案，而她的招牌圓點，其實是她以獨特風格繪畫南瓜外皮的天然斑點。草間一直用各種色彩和媒材呈現不同大小的南瓜，歷經數十年，發展出如本作所見的極致風格。儘管最經常出現於草間作品的南瓜是人所共知的普通蔬果，她也認為南瓜「得不到太多尊重」（草間彌生，拉爾夫・麥卡錫譯，《無限網：草間彌生自傳》，倫敦，2011年），但她卻將南瓜升格至聖物的層級，成就這件色彩豐富、活力四射、呈現深入自省的輝煌之作。

《南瓜》畫面豐富，流露強韌的生命力，色彩鮮亮、閃爍耀眼的瓷磚密鋪在南瓜和背景上，為本作注入無窮生機。本作是跨越繪畫和雕塑的別出心裁之作，巨大尺幅展現令人眼花瞭亂的錯視效果，耀眼迷人。草間以呈現有限和無限空間的對立關係獨步藝壇，她透過重複的動作進入冥想狀態，創作出蘊含深刻個人體會而備受世人讚譽的作品。身為二十一世紀最矚目的藝術家之一，草間的南瓜精準融會富有想像力的意象，堪為承載她藝術生涯中無窮精力的完美典例。