Marker pen and watercolor on cardboard

24.2 × 27.2 cm. 9 1/2 × 10 3/4 in.

Signed in English and dated with an artist's seal on bottom right; titled in Japanese, dated and signed in English on the reverse
PROVENANCE
YOD Gallery, Osaka
Acquired directly by present private Asian collector from the above

This work is accompanied by a registration card issued by Yayoi Kusama studio

“For a woman to opt for a career at all,--much less for a career in art, has required a certain amount of individuality, both in the past and at present; whether or not the woman artist rebels against or finds strength in the attitude of her family, she must in any case have a good strong streak of rebellion in her to make her way in the world of art at all, rather than submitting to the socially approved role of wife and mother, the only role to which every social institution consigns her automatically. It is only by adopting, however covertly, the "masculine" attributes of single-mindedness, concentration, tenaciousness, and absorption in ideas and craftsmanship for their own sake that women have succeeded, and continue to succeed, in the world of art.”

――American art historian Linda Nochlin, 1971

1989, the American feminist group Guerilla Girls made a famous poster that writes: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female”. This poster ironically and humorously describes the unequal treatment of female artists in the art world before the 20th century. However, in the past half-century, this situation has been obviously reversed. In terms of education, market and equal opportunities, women's voice has begun to speak out and become one of the dominant forces, ushering in “Her Era”. In the art market, this year, for the first time in the world, the total sale price of female artists' works exceeded 1 billion USD, and 80% of the participating artists at the Venice Biennale were women, a testament to the rising tide of the times.

In China Guardian Hong Kong's 10th Anniversary Autumn Auctions, we chose this special topic to comb and gather the masterpieces of outstanding female artists from the 20th century to the present. We present the most influential and most accomplished Chinese female painter in the 20th century, Pan Yuliang's museum level masterpiece Lady Brushing Her Hair. Also, representatives of the first and second generations of Chinese painters who studied abroad in France: Fan Tchunpi, Lalan, Ho Mojong, Tseng Yuho, who created her own “Dsui painting”, Peng Wei, who made dialogue between ancient and modern, Chen Ke, a leading artist of the “Cartoon Generation”, and Dong Shaw-hwei from Taiwan. On the Japanese side, we present “queen of the avant-garde”, Yayoi Kusama's eight works with different themes spanning from 1970 to 2015. Her ever-lasting unwavering tenacity of art ideal and the explosive energy of creating during her adventure in the art world can be witnessed. Further, other brilliant Japanese female artists like Chiharu Shiota, who continuously explores the nature of “presence in absence”, Chiho Aoshima, Kiriko Iida, Etsu Egami, and the self-taught artist Ayako Rokkaku. We also present Korean artist Rhee Seund Ja, who left her family and went to Paris to study art and surf the wave of abstract expression during the Korean War in 1951. As well as the Filipino artist Marina Cruz who is famous for her unique perspective of painting clothes that condense memories and emotions of generations, and American artist Shara Hughes. Through their powerful works, let us enter “Her Era”.

Rebirth of Poetic Verses, a Hymn to the Nature
The Essence of Yayoi Kusama's Art on Paper

“She created a type of form. With a white overlap like mycelium that is consistent throughout and keeps proliferating, consciousness is enclosed. That is art with a level of self-discipline, which uses unobstructed matter to present a transcendent reality. With an astounding method, this wonderful and beautiful image is vividly imprinted into our sensory organs.”

―― Herbert Read, Infinity Net : The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama

In 1977, Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan from the United States to recuperate from health issues. She moved into a sanatorium in Tokyo and bought the opposite building for her permanent studio, starting a new chapter in her art career. While the people of her hometown held conservative views, Kusama did not shy away from her artistic explorations. Her avant-garde concepts attempt to express her ideas in the male-dominated contemporary art world. Through her bold efforts to express herself, her works created during this period have become the turning point of her career, a phase of the “awakening of her autonomous power”, facilitating the birth of her famous Pumpkin series. During the same time, she began creating cardboard works which incorporated grid elements. The cardboard works embody Kusama's unique style of symbols, but she purposely avoided the polka dots and familiar images that she is most accustomed to. Her deliberate avoidance of the usual motifs in her works created during that time was her method of experiencing unknown sensory encounters created through combining avant-garde abstract Expressionism with action painting. Layering the textures in the abstract structures with the use of silver enamel, acrylic colour spray paint, and other special pigments, her works are characterized by the perfect integration of elements from the East and the West. The works manifest her personal struggles and experience after her return from the United States, imparting energy that is full of life and resilience. As her biographer Tatehata Akira had observed, when Kusama returned to Japan, “the wonderful and poetic qualities of her pre-New York period work has reappeared.” Kusama herself also quoted: “My second personality started to speak. The works I created after returning Japan were like the second myself, the works I created in New York was my first personality. The two together accomplished my soul.” This season, we present four of Kusama's works created in the 70s to the 90s, all of which are from different periods featuring different sizes, colours, and media, representing the diverse styles created by the queen of art world.

Under the Magnificent Firmament, Stars Are Hidden in the Nebulae

Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan in 1978. She held a solo exhibition in her hometown in Nagano, Japan and took a short break from creating art. Being away from her hometown for a long period of time, her sentiments were affected by Nagano's winter. Her urge to create was rekindled. As she recalls in her autobiography, she writes, “Just as my heart was becoming empty, snowflakes like silver powder fell from the sky. Snowflakes soared in the air, landing and covering the earth. Seeing the beauty in front of me, I thought of the hometown that came to my mind when I was visiting the Swiss Alps. This is my home.” Submerged in the beauty of her hometown, Kusama decided to start creating again. Using silver enamel as the medium for her next works, she employed techniques of polishing, spraying, and mixing paints on cardboard to recreate snow of her hometown that is unique to her works. Completed in 1978, Beyond the Nebulae (Lot 37) is an exemplar of the uniqueness of her representation of snow. What is particularly special is that most of her Enamel Cardboard series works are of fixed sizes (27x24cm). Those of large sizes early warks such as Beyond the Nebulae (65x50.5cm) are extremely rare. Currently, only two works in the series with this size have appeared in auctions. The collection value of this work is immense.

Beyond the Nebulae employs Kusama's famous “Infinity Net” technique. The irregular mesh texture of the work is a subtle extension of the technique. Through different densities, intense visual stimulation is incited. Scattered across the art piece, web-like patterns are segregated by curve-shaped silver foils. The clear texture of the web-like patterns contrasted with the soft-focus crescent-shaped silver foil intensely stimulate visual sensory, forming a flickering and surging ambiguous space. The silver, grey, and white colours shimmer under the light. Through the ever-growing interlaced network, these colours infinitely extend and form a small universe, capturing the vast starry sky in every square inch as if the sky and the earth are boundless. The spirits of all living things are intertwined and merged together, shining in the silent night sky of the art piece. In the centre of the piece, a streak of indigo watercolour flows downward like gentle autumn wind, brightening the silver-grey tones in the piece, drawing attention to the centre. The neon green colour emits a yellow sheen similar to sparkling waves. The colour also resembles mists hovering over mountains, blending in with the snow in the background and portraying the beautiful memories of life involving air, breathing, and the starry sky.

World of Infinite Possibilities, Blooming Flowers of Youth

“The dots represent sentiments toward everlasting vitality; the flowers covered by the dots signify the radiance of love that never dies.”

――Yayoi Kusama

From late 1970s to early 1980s, Kusama used pure water-based brushes to complete a series of lotus root purple compositions constructed with polka dots as the theme, most of which were figurative themes such as high heels, pumpkins, and butterflies. Flowers in My Memories (Lot 34) is completed in 1979. It is an extremely rare abstract work in the series. The piece depicts blooming flowers drawn in pink and purple water-based pens. The smudged purple colour resembles blooming petals and the flower stem in the middle contains thin lines outlined by slender lines. It is an accurate representation of flower stem textures. In the process of creation, Kusama constantly dilutes the originally heavy water-based pen with water, allowing the flower to stretch under the watering and moisturizing of the paint water, eventually encouraging it to bloom to its fullest potential. The red dots in the background epitomizing Kusama's most famous technique could be regarded as plant seeds embedded in the earth and symbolizes the power of hope. The irregularly arranged form resembles the process of cell metabolism and continuous growth. With the brush strokes alternating between heavy and light, the piece stimulates its viewer's visual sensory through the depiction of blooming flowers.

An Eternal Covenant in the Depths of the Sea

In the same year of 1978, Yayoi Kusama completed another wonderful work on paper named Seafloor Legend (Lot 35). While she employs her famous “Infinity Net” motif, the motif is elaborated through different densities and directions to depict the depths of the scene. On the dark blue background, the loose lattice lines fluctuate up and down, symbolizing the undulations of the sea. The dense mesh pattern is like a reef on the seabed and the mottled texture mimics growth rings, conveying everlasting eternity. The silver-grey spray paint creates a unique grainy texture on the paper, forming a mysterious vortex spinning on a plane, shrinking and condensing in the centre while constructing an invisible force that leads its viewer into the unknown underwater world. Orange acrylic colour covers the surface of the top of the piece. The extremely thin texture reveals a grey-blue background and the vivid colours are irregularly distributed on the picture, making the work appear as a set of carefully carved pieces when observed from a distance. A giant seal is formed on the top layer of the painting, locking in the mystery and turbulence of the seabed. Beneath its boundless grid, the seawater rises and falls between the gaps of the web, creating visual imagery of fluctuating and roaming water that is both light and ferocious. With irregular patterns and dynamics, the work is rid of rigorous and mechanical composition. The whole picture shows subtle dislocation and contingency at the same time, revealing the persistent obsessions and the spiritual nature of Kusama's meditations during her creative progressions.

Ageing is a Process Like Flowing Liquid Gold, Carefree as a Cloud Roaming in the Winds

In 1991 Yayoi Kusama published Digitalis of Central Park, a semi-autobiographical depiction of the life of a Japanese woman who wandered alone in New York, causing repercussions she had to endure. Her whole life is entangled with New York and she never forgets it. In the same year, she created Hudson River in Sunset (Lot 36), depicting the canal that runs through New York City with her famous enamel cardboard. However, in this work, she no longer used the low saturation colours for the base, but boldly used the lake-like peacock blue to depict the rippling river surface. She then used bright orange spray paint on the surface of the work to paint the iconic infinity net. The variations and undulations of the grid expand infinitely, mimicking the sunset reflection on the lake. The artist used acrylic colours and lacquer glaze to create changes in the lake surface and employed strong contrasting colours to express the slightly rippling lake, its movements motivated by the autumn wind. The atmosphere emanating from the piece echoes the artists' deep contemplations as carefree as floating clouds after the ebbing of burning passion. The texture of the orange paint is a metaphor for rays of sunlight swaying and flowing between the gaps on the water surface. It is perceived closely by the eyes but cannot be touched, shining like gilt that resembles the surging lustre of youth.

Price estimate:
HKD: 250,000 - 550,000
USD: 31,800 - 70,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 336,000