Enamel and spray enamel on paperboard

27 × 24.2 cm. 10 5/8 × 9 1/2 in.

Titled in Japanese, signed in English and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo
Acquired directly by Ruth Harf, a private collector from New York, from the above
Important Private Collection, Asia

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

Conserve the Universe Inward, Spread the Spring Outward
Yayoi Kusama's Flower Language

Since returning to Tokyo in the late 1970s, Kusama has begun to explore various painting media and forms, creating a series of semi-abstract works using enamel and cardboard as the medium. She adopts the unique color and delicate texture of enamel glaze to create the subtle natural changes and rich appearance in the change of four seasons. In this auction, we bring a representative of them, Flower completed in 1980. It is not only the artist's innovative breakthrough in media, but also a perfect encounter between “text” and “image” on paper. Through a semi-abstract form of expression, it combines the bold style of abstract expressionism, and also has the occasional effect of action painting, vividly showing the fall of Kusama's state of mind, detached and idle like flowers.

In Flower, we could find that the fascination and dissolution in her Infinite Net series follow the erupted glaze particles, showing the meticulousness and the establishment of a vast natural environment in a square inch. Just as on the upper and lower sides of the flower, the regular mesh net texture becomes the extension and deformation of the Infinite Net. Through the parts of different densities, it creates visual fluctuations and forms a continuous curved space, just like the interaction of time and space in the universe, showing the boundless realm outside the painting.

The Shining Message From the Wise

The artist uses silver glaze to spray iconic grid textures on the upper and lower ends, combined with the square frame, to build a symmetrical spatial structure beauty. In the central area of the painting, the dark gray glaze ink is organized and coordinated with different geometric elements that move closer to the center, presenting a blooming flower on the golden paper. Kusama's “overlooking” perspective allows the viewers to understand the image from a two-dimensional composition, maximizing the simplicity and etherealness of traditional Japanese art. Around the flowers, the white color that gradually diffuses exudes a holy halo. She uses inkjet painting skills to create a unique grainy texture on the paper, firmly attracting the viewers' sight to the central flower bud with the mysterious “vortex” rotating on the paper. While listening to the artist's understanding of nature and life, in the seemingly dim light, viewers around the flower can have a glimpse of the supreme ideal of “natural beauty” of the artist.

Price estimate:
HKD: 220,000 - 320,000
USD: 28,300 - 41,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 456,000