The yellow pumpkins with the black dots are among Yayoi Kusama’s most iconic works, for which she is known worldwide. The artist has created these pumpkins in various sizes, from handy miniature formats to oversized objects for public spaces.
Each of the two small-format works, A PUMPKIN, are housed in a special wooden box, which is open at the front and back. The boxes are covered with fabric and painted with acrylic paint. Inside each box is half a pumpkin made of painted papier-mâché in different shapes. Kusama has built entire shelved walls from such pumpkin boxes, which invite viewers to compare these objects modeled on the diversity found in nature.
Just like her polka dots, pumpkins are a recurring motif in the Japanese artist’s work. Kusama grew up in Matsumoto, a town in Nagano Prefecture, where her parents ran a seed nursery. Even as a young girl, she conducted studies of nature in drawings; beginning in 1946, these studies included pumpkins. Since then, pumpkins covered in polka dot patterns of various colors and shapes have appeared in her work. “Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood. They speak to me of the joy of living. They are humble and amusing at the same time, and I have and always will celebrate them in my art.”
The same group of works also includes: A PUMPKIN (1991)