E xecuted in 1990, Pumpkin is a spellbinding, flawlessly executed archetype from Yayoi Kusama’s oeuvre – a test.mes nt to her astonishing dedication to creation, technique, and a singular artistic vision. Full and symMetricas l, the pumpkin of the present work is a splendid example of her most favoured motif. In the background, Kusama’s all-over scaled tessellations – an iconic iteration of the artist’s most distinctive infinity net motif employed often within her pumpkin paintings – are so tightly and dexterously woven that the canvas hums with the rhythmic intensity of the pattern. The pumpkin itself, anthropomorphic and brilliantly luminous, presents the legendary artist at the height of her powers: each gleaming circle shimmers and vibrates; each meticulously crafted row of multi-striated dots throbs and slithers fluidly down the body of the gourd.

One of the most recognisable icons in contemporary art today, Kusama’s pumpkin is deeply central to the artist’s psyche, and its origins within her art can be traced back to her most early years. In 1948, three years after the war ended, a 19-year-old Kusama enrolled in a fourth-year course at Kyoto City Senior High School of Art. “During my t.mes in Kyoto I diligently painted pumpkins”, wrote the artist, “which in later years would become an important theme in my art” (Kusama Yayoi, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, Tate Publishing, 2011, p. 75). Kusama recalls having consumed the vegetable endlessly to the point of nausea in her childhood years during and after the war; in spite of this, she retains a fond attachment to its organic bulbous form, describings it as embodying a “generous unpretentiousness” and “solid spiritual balance” (Ibid., p. 76). Already experiencing hallucinations at the t.mes , involving pumpkins that spoke to her in a most animated manner, Kusama found the gourd a benign and nurturing subject – as opposed to the more traumatic and menacing feelings she associates with flowers, plants and objects that plagued her throughout her life.

Kusama’s early pumpkins were painted with traditional Nihonga materials, which she left behind after her move from Matsumoto to New York in 1958. Within only eighteen months of her arrival, Kusama stunned the New York art scene with her radical Infinity Nets in 1959, executed in the Western medium of oil, which were followed by her Accumulation soft sculptures in 1961. In 1965 Kusama infused explosions of colour into her sculptures through the use of dotted and striped fabrics; by this t.mes , the sheer breadth, scale and ambition of her diverse cross-media oeuvre had taken over the city like an epidemic. Her ubiquitous polka-dot and net motifs, manifested in mesmeric paintings, immersive rooms, hypnotic installations, body art and participatory performances, forged a wholly unique aesthetic that articulated a rigorous, overwhelming language of obsession and obliteration – a language that enabled the artist to combat her hallucinatory mental illness. The artist reflects: “I use my complexes and fears as subjects. I make them and make them and then keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process. I call this ‘obliteration’” (Kusama Yayoi, cited in Mignon Nixon, ‘Infinity Politics’, in Francis Morris (ed.), Yayoi Kusama, Tate Publishing, 2012, p. 180).

After an explosive rise to fame in New York in the 1960s, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, withdrawing into a period of semi-obscurity whilst quietly amassing a prolific body of work. It was during this t.mes that Kusama revisited her earlier pumpkin motif, combining her signature all-over Nets and obliterating polka-dot aesthetic with the theme of her favourite gourd. During the 1980s Kusama explored colourful variations of her pumpkin-pattern in two-dimensional paintings, drawings and prints; over the years her rendering of pumpkin ‘skin’ grew ever more deft and accomplished, with the flowing lines of dots advancing and receding rhythmically in a fastidios usly precise yet dynamically organic manner. Even the seemingly blank or ‘undotted’ segments are overlaid with miniscule specks, contributing to a complex and intensely laborious configuration that pulsates and disorients with energy akin to that of Op art paintings.

Pumpkin (1990) was painted by Kusama and sold through Gallery Te, Tokyo, which was one of the very first galleries to sell Kusama’s artworks in the 1980s along with Fuji Television Gallery. Painted in 1990, it coincided with a very public resurgence for the artist: her first New York retrospective in 1989 at the Centre for International Contemporary Arts, which signified a major revival of American and European interest in Kusama’s work, and becoming the first Japanese artist to grace the cover of Art in America that very same year. Parallelling this revival was a reevaluation of her work in Japan: just a year after Pumpkin (1990) was created, Kusama’s landmark exhibition Mirror Room (Pumpkin) was shown at the Fuji Television Gallery and the Hara Museum in Tokyo, which went on to be exhibited at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. Kusama was the first Japanese woman artist in the history of the Biennale to be granted a solo exhibition at the prestigious event.

The pumpkin stands as a symbol of triumph for the artist’s personal as well as artistic rebirth, representing a mediation of the artist’s psychiatric illness that went hand-in-hand with the ever-increasing sophistication, dexterity and creativity of her creations. As Alexandra Munroe writes, Kusama’s art requires her “not only to surrender to madness but also to triumph over it; trauma must be substantially transformed before it can communicate to others as beauty and meaning” (Alexandra Munroe, ‘Between Heaven and earth: The Literary Art of Yayoi Kusama’, in Exh. Cat. Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958-1968, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998, p. 81).

《南 瓜》作於1990年，畫面繁密嚴謹、迷幻懾人，是草間彌生南瓜畫中的佼佼佳作，見證這位名動天下的藝術家數十年來孜孜不倦，持續創作和專注磨礪技法的努力，以及她舉世無雙的藝術視野。本作再度採用草間彌生最熱愛的創作主題，畫中南瓜飽滿對稱，而滿佈背景的格狀「無限網」是草間的招牌圖案，經常與南瓜相伴出現。這些網格紋緊密有序地互相交織連接，畫布彷彿與圖案律動時的節奏共鳴。南瓜的色彩鮮明亮麗，幾乎像具有靈性一般，展現這位傳奇藝術家在全盛時期的旺盛創作力。每一個光澤柔潤的圓圈皆在閃閃發亮、蠢蠢欲動，每一行精心細繪、排列整齊的圓點在南瓜表面微微顫動，沿著弧線下滑。

草間彌生的南瓜是當代藝術界最為人熟悉的創作標誌之一，同時亦是這位藝術家精神世界的中心支柱。她對南瓜的依戀始於童年，日後亦以它為創作主題。二戰結束三年後，十九歲的草間彌生於1948年開始修讀京都市立工藝美術學校的四年課程。她曾寫道：「我在京都的時候已積極繪畫南瓜，後來南瓜更成為我的重要創作主題」（草間彌生，《無限網：草間彌生自傳》，譯：拉爾夫・麥卡錫，泰特出版社， 2011年，頁75）。藝術家曾經憶述兒時經歷的戰爭及戰後時期，年幼的她以南瓜為食，每日所吃別無他物，直至作嘔反胃。然而，她仍對其自然而生的球莖形狀深深著迷，認為它們帶來「寬厚謙遜」的感覺，流露出「實在的靈性和諧」（同上註，頁76）。藝術家當時已受幻覺影響，她發現南瓜活靈活現地跟她說話。花朵、植物與其他事物通常令她聯想到傷害與威脅，使她一生飽受困擾；南瓜卻恰恰相反，在她眼中看來親切仁慈，有如她的守護者。

草間彌生早期的南瓜以傳統日本畫媒材繪成，自從在1958年從松本移居紐約後，她便摒棄了這種創作形式。身處紐約短短十八個月後，藝術家於1959年以西方油彩創作革新的《無限網》，令紐約藝壇為之哄動。其後她於1961年創作軟雕塑《Accumulation》。她於1965年運用圓點及條狀布料，為其雕塑增添繽紛色彩。她的各種跨媒材創作展示純粹徹底的廣度、規模與目標，風行整個紐約。在動人的畫作、深陷的空間、迷幻的裝置、人體藝術以至參與式表演中，她的圓點與網紋無處不在，創造出獨一無二的美學，表現「迷戀」與「消融」的語言，細緻縝密，且排山倒海，氣勢浩大，讓她得以對抗幻覺之苦。她說：「我直接把自身問題和恐懼當作創作題材...... 我不斷將圖案重複再重複，直至我完全沉浸在整個過程中為止。我將之稱為『消融』」（引述自草間彌生，米尼翁・尼克遜，<無限政治>，載於弗朗西斯・莫里斯編，《草間彌生》，泰特出版社， 2012年，頁180）。

草間彌生於六十年代在紐約迅速成名，其後於1975年退居日本。縱然多年來幾乎悄無聲息，她住院期間仍創作不輟，悄悄累積了大量藝術作品。她就在當時重拾早期喜愛的南瓜題材，並融入標誌性的「無限網」以及自我消融的圓點美學。藝術家在八十年代以平面油畫、素描及版畫探索南瓜圖案的色彩變化。歷年來，她繪畫南瓜外皮的技藝愈見精煉嫻熟，透過一絲不苟而又生動自然的創作方式，圓點更加流暢飽滿，收放自如。即使看來空置或「無點」的部分，實是佈滿微小的斑點，締造錯綜複雜、繁複嚴謹的構圖，如同幻視藝術，力量強烈，律動澎湃，縱橫交錯。

草間彌生在1990年創作《南瓜》，並經東京手畫廊出售，而這間畫廊和富士電視台美術館就是1980年代最早開始出售草間彌生作品的藝廊。這幅作品繪於1990年，與1989年草間彌生在紐約的首場回顧展幾乎同時發生。這場在紐約國際當代藝術中心舉辦的回顧展獲得公眾的熱切關注，標示著草間彌生再次成為美國與歐洲市場中炙手可熱的寵兒。同年，她成為了首位登上《美國藝術雜誌》（Art in America）的日本藝術家。與此同時，她的作品在日本亦獲得重新審視──在《南瓜》（1990年）面世後的短短一年，東京富士電視台美術館和原美術館就舉辦了草間彌生的重大展覽「鏡屋（南瓜）」，而這個展覽隨後於1993年的第45屆威尼斯雙年展中再度舉辦，草間彌生成為了第一位在威尼斯雙年展上舉辦個展的女性藝術家。

南瓜象徵草間彌生在精神和藝術上的重生，代表她從精神疾病的困擾中得到紓解，而這個過程與她在創作中不斷提升的複雜和靈巧程度相輔相成。如孟璐所說，草間的藝術創作「不僅要向瘋狂投降，還要將之征服。創傷必先要全然轉化，方可在人前呈現美感與意義」（孟璐撰，<天地之間：草間彌生的藝術>，載於《永恆的愛：草間彌生1958-1968年》展覽圖錄，洛杉磯藝術博物館，1998年，頁81）。