Footnotes

Provenance
Gift from the artist during Venice Biennale, 1993

草間彌生
南瓜
綜合媒材
1993年作

簽名：KUSAMA（底部）

來源
現藏家於1993年威尼斯雙年展得自藝術家本人

The pumpkin is a recurring motif in Yayoi Kusama's practice, brings comfort and peace to Kusama, as the artist's family grew them in their plant seed nursery through her childhood. Three works are offered in this sale are Kusama's iconic series on pumpkins. Kusama represented Japan at the 45th Venice Biennale and which she constructed an immersive Mirror Room filled with an infinite reflection of pumpkin sculptures compellingly paired with her signature hallucinogenic dots. Pumpkin (Lot 10) is a unique handmade miniature Pumpkin the owner obtained from the 1993 Venice Biennale, the organic body evokes Kusama's adorable first encounter with pumpkin when she was young, which brings comfort and mental stability to the artist.

On its counterpart, Pumpkin (Lot 8) and Pumpkin (Lot 9) are from one of the expansive oeuvres Kusama created, the vivid yellow pumpkins are covered with tight-knit patterns of black polka dots which derive from her hallucinations. Mimicking formal and tonal gradation of a pumpkin, the dots are perfectly placed in vertical lines around the entire piece, forming enthralling optical energy on the pumpkin. The Pumpkin (Lot 8) is held in a limited edition, this particular piece has the rich, glossy textured quality due to the nature of the painted resin. Pumpkin (Lot 9) has a distinctive curved black stem, which covered with haphazardly placed succulent yellow dots, the body of the pumpkin is rendered into small, rounded shape. The artist offers vitality and characters to the pumpkins, each comes in different forms and materials, incorporating the aesthetic and concepts from her compulsive expression of infinity.

南瓜是反覆出現在草間彌生作品中的形象，她小時候家族經營的種植場裡的南瓜，總能給她帶來一種慰藉及平靜的感覺。本次拍賣會呈獻的三件作品均來自草間彌生經典的「南瓜」系列。她曾代表日本參加第45屆威尼斯雙年展，在展覽中她建造了一個沉浸式的鏡室，裡面充斥了南瓜雕塑的無限反射影像，而這些南瓜雕塑上披滿了其標誌性的迷幻波點。《南瓜》（拍品編號10）是個獨特的手工微型南瓜雕塑，是收藏家在1993年威尼斯雙年展中得自藝術家本人，雕塑的有機形態呈現出草間彌生小時候與南瓜首次美麗的邂逅，而南瓜自此令她感到寬慰，並能平伏她的情緒。

《南瓜》（拍品編號8）和《南瓜》（拍品編號9）均是草間彌生為人所熟悉的作品，鮮豔的黃色南瓜上密密麻麻地覆滿源自她幻覺中的黑色波點，並完美地以直線排列，模仿出南瓜的形態和漸變色調，形成悅人眼目的視覺能量。《南瓜》（拍品編號8）屬限量作品，彩繪樹脂的質感令這件作品饒富豐盈亮澤的紋理。《南瓜》（拍品編號9）有一條獨特的黑色彎曲柄部，上面覆蓋著散落的鮮黃色波點，而南瓜則以小巧而圓渾的形狀呈現。草間彌生賦予南瓜活力和與個性，以不同形態和物料創作每個南瓜，展現出她對無限的執念與詮釋，同時亦融合了其極具風格的美學概念。