Utterly mesmerizing and enthralling, executed in a distinctive palette of gold and chartreuse, Yayoi Kusama’s INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) is a resplendent test.mes nt to the enduring, spellbinding power of the artist’s signature abstract mode. Executed in 2013, the present work marks the apex of a period of major and highly celebrated retrospectives that wholly solidified Kusama’s status and significance within the context of the contemporary art canon. In its intricately constructed surface of undulating forms, INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) is a superb exemplar from the artist’s iconic series of Infinity Nets; these iconic works serve as the cornerstone of Kusama’s artistic practice and the foundation for the remainder of her sculptures, installations, and varied painterly output. The scintillating, immersive surface of INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) achieves the artist’s ultimate goal: to momentarily draw the viewer into Kusama’s own, definitive experience of infinity.

Enveloping the viewer within its gleaming surface, INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) is at once meditative and emphatic, intricate and explosive, utterly abstract and entirely specific. Below the labyrinthine web of golden loops, the saturated azure hue of the painting’s ground invites the viewer to immerse him or herself within its chartreuse depths. Kusama’s use of metallic pigment imbues the present work with an aura of exquisite light; the work is ethereal, texturally anomalous and full of reflected illumination. The artist’s innumerable brushstrokes pile onto one another, culminating in some parts of the canvas in mounds of expressive impasto, and congealing into radiating planes of pigment in others. Each dab of paint is laid with a punctilious devotion to the act of mark making, consuming the canvas in a field of texture. At first glance, the disparate layers of pigment are deceptively legible; yet upon further inspection, the hypnotic skeins of paints begin to dilate and pulsate, creating an extraordinary and intriguing visual interplay within the painting’s depths.

Initially conceptualized after the artist moved from Japan to Manhattan in the late 1950s, Kusama series of Infinity Nets sprouted from a deep-seated ambition to establish herself in the New York art world. Resplendent with endlessly repeating strokes, the works in the series are a manifestation of and coping mechanism for the artist’s obsessive-compulsive disorder and hallucinations brought on by a psychological condition. Diagnosed with these disorders as a child, Kusama struggled with visions of infinitely oscillating, kaleidoscopic patterns throughout her childhood in Japan; in her own words, the artist describes: “I was always standing at the centre of the obsession, over the passionate accretion and repetition inside of me" (the artist cited in: Laura Hoptman, Yayoi Kusama, London, 2000, p. 103). It was not until her arrival in the United States, however, that Kusama found the means of channeling her psychosomatic visions and tendencies into the paintings that would form the beginning of the iconic Infinity Nets series. Working with a focus both obsessive and meditative, Kusama would move her brush across the canvas with precise, minute flicks of the wrist, carefully weaving the complex skein of overlapping loops to create an undulating pattern that calls to mind the simultaneously mesmerizing and terrifying glimpse of infinity one experiences before a seemingly endless expanse of shimmering water.

Produced decades after the first examples from that series, the glistening surface of INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) continues that legacy with a newfound gravitas. Executed in the mature period of the artist’s career, INFINITY-NETS (NOLM) is painted in acrylic pigment rather than oil. Kusama transitioned to this water-soluble medium in the 1980s, which built on her foundational training in traditional Japanese watercolor. The faster drying t.mes of acrylic speaks to the artist’s relentless endurance and will to paint, cultivated over years of unending artmaking. This technical development speaks to the artist’s desire to enact her vision with an efficiency and ferocity that reflects her sense of purpose and emotional investment in her body of work as a whole. Indeed, the effort Kusama has invested within the present work is, in turn, invested in the viewer: standing before INFINITY-NETS (NOLM), t.mes and space dilate as the viewer is entirely absorbed into Kusama’s singular conceptual vision.

《無限網（NOLM）》的畫面綻放璀璨矚目的金黃色與嫩綠色，芬華翡麗、引人入勝，足證草間彌生的獨特抽象創作的迷人魔力。本作誕生於2013年，當時各地博物館和機構紛紛為草間彌生舉辦大型回顧展，屢獲好評，這段時期奠定她在當代藝術領域的重要地位。本作可見精心編排、錯綜複雜的波浪圖形，是草間彌生著名的「無限網」系列的宏麗傑作。這個經典系列是草間彌生整個藝術生涯的基石，亦是她的雕塑、裝置作品和不同類型藝術創作的基礎。《無限網（NOLM）》閃爍輝煌的畫面，讓人彷如置身其中，體現了草間彌生的終極創作目標——通過藝術創作，讓觀眾在須臾之間，用身心感受她那不可思議的無限幻象世界。

《無限網（NOLM）》以熠熠生輝的明亮畫面，將觀眾包覆其中，流露出引人沉思的澎湃力量，成品繁複細膩又充滿爆發力，是一幅完全抽象、卓爾不群的鉅作。無數的金黃色圓環在畫面上纏繞交織，編成一張迷宮般的巨網；畫面底層的濃厚天青色若隱若現，讓觀者完全沐浴在深邃奥妙的黃綠色層之中。草間彌生用金黃色調為作品注入美輪美奐的華麗光芒，締造出一幅空靈飄渺、紋理獨特，洋溢明艷光彩的傑作。藝術家將無數筆觸層層覆疊，在畫面一隅形成充滿表現力的厚塗肌理，在另一隅則結聚成向外擴散的顏料層。一筆一劃流露出藝術家一絲不苟的繪畫功夫，令成個畫幅充滿豐富質感。驟眼看去，作品的不同顏料層看似清晰可辨；在仔細觀察下，層層迭迭的顏料塊開始膨脹、移動，在畫面中創造出非同凡響、引人入勝的視覺交錯效果。

1950年代末，草見彌生從日本移居曼哈頓，心懷在紐約藝壇闖出名堂的宏大志向，而「無限網」系列的創作概念就在此時形成。此系列的畫面佈滿不斷重複的筆觸，反映了草間因心理創傷而引發的強迫症症狀，並呈現出她眼中所見的幻覺。草間在兒時被診斷為強迫症患者，她的整個日本童年時光均飽受不斷移動、千變萬化的幻象圖案所折磨，正如藝術家本人所述：「一直以來，我對不斷增生和重複均有著強迫性的迷戀，而我正身處這種迷戀的中心」（引述藝術家，載於蘿拉・霍普特曼著，《草間彌生》，2000年，頁103）。直至抵達美國後，草間才發現她可以將這種困擾身心的幻象訴諸畫上，因而逐漸孕育出經典的「無限網」系列。在創作的過程中，草間憑藉執拗而專注的精神，輕輕揮動手腕，以精確筆觸在畫幅上悉心繪製不斷重複的圓環圖案，交織出縱橫交錯的巨網，這種網呈現一片游移不定的圖案。這種圖案令人聯想到站在廣袤無邊的海洋面前，面對一漲一散、起伏不止的海浪，猶如瞥見無垠之境，使人著迷，同時令人惶恐不安。

本作在「無限網」系列面世數十年後才告誕生，金光燦爛的畫面延續了此系列的藝術風格，同時散發一種前所未有的莊嚴氣魄。本作出自草間彌生事業生涯的成熟時期，以壓克力顏料為媒材，而非傳統油彩。1980年代，草間以她學習過的傳統日本水彩畫訓練為基礎，改用這種水溶性媒材作畫。壓克力顏料的風乾速度較快，體現了藝術家多年來對繪畫孜孜不倦、不屈不饒的堅持——這種作畫技術上的進步，反映了草間希望以明快洋灑的手筆繪出眼中所見的景象，並在作品中展露她的情感與使命感。的確，草間在此畫上所付出的努力，最終讓觀者受益匪淺——站在《無限網（NOLM）》面前，時間與空間彷彿不斷膨脹，觀者完全投入了草間彌生那獨一無二、浩瀚無垠的抽象幻境之中。