Acrylic on canvas

145.5 × 145.5 cm. 57 1/4 × 57 1/4 in.

Numbered, signed and titled in English and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

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

Note: A label from Tokyo Ota Fine Art Gallery is affixed on the reverse

Boundless Brilliance-Personal Epic
Yayoi Kusama's Rare Golden Infinity Nets Masterpiece

“This is my epic, encompassing everything I am. The dot incantation and meshing wrap me in a magical curtain infused with an invisible mystical invisible power.”

――Yayoi Kusama

It was during her debut New York solo exhibition at the Brata Gallery in 1959 that Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama first introduced her Infinity Net series of works and their minimalist use of colour, repeating coiled lines and boundless space drew viewers into a magical vision and psychological experience that reverberated around the art world. It also marked the rise of a new power in the US art world which was dominated by abstract expressionism at that time, pointing the way for a new wave of minimalism and Pop art that was about to sweep the world. Writing in The Art Newspaper, American artist and art critic Donald Judd was full of praise for Kusama:”Yayoi Kusama is an original painter. The five white, very large paintings in this show are strong, advanced in concept and realised. The space is shallow, close to the surface and achieved by innumerable small arcs superimposed on a black ground overlain with a wash of white. The effect is both complex and simple. The total quality suggests an analogy to a large, fragile, but vigorously carved grill or to a massive, solid lace. The expression transcends the question of whether it is Oriental or American. Although it is something of both, certainly of such Americans as Rothko, Still and Newman, it is not at all a synthesis and is thoroughly independent.” The artist stood at the centre of post-war world art transcending the boundaries of race and gender and among countless contesting claims, became the art world's brightest star. In 2006, Kusama became the first ever female recipient of the “Praemium Imperiale” painting award in Japan, one of the most prestigious art awards in the world and an indication that she has successfully established for herself a forward-looking and important position in Eastern and Western art history, marked by her iconic and avant-garde work.

The Largest “Gold Net with Black Background” Work Ever Auctioned

The “Infinity Net” is one of the most well known motifs developed by Yayoi Kusama in her artistic career and involved her creating an almost ritualistically repetitive technique. Moreover, this ensured she stood out as independent from the many competing artistic schools in the US at that time. When Kusama first showed her “Infinity Net” works in the late 1950s, they were minimalist black and white dichromatic pieces. It was not until 1999 that she officially introduced her “Gold Net” work as part of the installation Beyond my Illusion. On this occasion, we are extremely honoured to be auctioning the work Gold Infinity Nets completed in 2015. Since Kusama's work was first sold at auction in 1992, only five “gold net with black background” pieces have ever gone under the hammer and the one being auctioned here is the largest ever to be sold, making it a particular rarity.

Divine and Solemn-Eastern-Western Gilt Dreams

Since ancient times the colour “gold” has been accorded a degree of divinity in both Eastern and Western cultures. In the West this is closely connected to the Ancient Greek sun god Apollo who was a symbol of light, and designated to be the deity of art and the embodiment of ultimate beauty in the Theogony. In Japanese traditional culture the colour gold and religion are connected, the main colours seen when worshipping in Japanese temples being “vermillion” and “gold leaf,” the former symbolizing celebration and authority, while the latter infuses warmth of golden yellow with a wood based tone. This can be traced back to the “fantasy and divinity” of Japanese Buddhist culture. In this context, Gold Infinity Nets was not only a challenge and pioneering move by the artist at her venerable age, the rich texture of the work also embodies her boundless energy and consistent core creative thinking. In addition, the golden resplendence of the work extended the artistic style of the “infinity net” series and radiates an unprecedented sense of solemnity, realizing the ultimate creative objective of Yayoi Kusama - using her art to transport viewers to an unimaginable fantasy world.

Star-Studded, Infinity Net World

Gold Infinity Nets extended the core concepts of “reproduction and proliferation” seen in the “Infinity Net” series as its lines appear to have no beginning, middle or end, the infinite extension showcasing the artist's vast and unique view of the world. In this work, Kusama chose to use an ink-like black colour as the background for the piece, which she contracted with the brilliant gold colour. As the brushstrokes rotate into arcs, the artist laid out a dense and unique visual image, the line structure crisscrossing to create the huge net in front of the viewer. This is akin to being in a vast and boundless ocean and becoming mesmerized by the boundlessness of the endlessly rising and falling waves.

Yayoi Kusama grew up in a family that operated a wholesale seed company, and so as a child she often visited and played at local farms. It was this experience that allowed her to observe the biochemical chain reaction of seeds and plants up close, from the sowing of seeds to germination and breeding, which as a young girl fascinated her. In Gold Infinity Nets, Kusama takes the organic, limitlessly proliferating natural images rooted in her mind and extends these. In this sense, the work in front of us is like a divine scene in which the golden light of the sun spills over, replete with natural life, vitality and unfolding possibilities, inviting viewers to become one with the work.

Self-ablating Circulating Energy

In Gold Infinity Nets, Yayoi Kusama utilized precipitation and visualization to successfully showcase through her art the universe she perceives. In this, the points of particle-like light in the glittering gold are sprinkled across the canvas in a way that gives viewers a sense of spatial dislocation. Seen from a distance the work affords the viewer a feeling of depth and boundlessness and it is the spatial dislocation of “vastness” and “outwards radiating” that creates a sense of self-ablation, the process by which the individual becomes one with the work. In this way, viewers experience the same self ablation as the artist in this unfocussed perceptual world. This also represents the realization of the philosophy Kusama has advocated since the 1960s – the desire to forget the self and unify people and the world as a single entity.

Crafting a Three Dimensional Fantasy World in a Two Dimensional Work

In 1966, the artist created the Yayoi Kusama: Endless Love Show installation in New York City, and it was comprised of seven different colours of light bulbs embedded in an enclosed space with mirrors on all sides, imagined as the light at the beginning of the cosmos. Over four decades later, in 2009, Kusama completed Infinity Mirror Room: Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, in which she used a single golden warm light to illuminate the boundless blackness of an “infinity mirror room” installation, ensuring visitors experienced psychedelic visions. In the work being auctioned Gold Infinity Nets, Kusama summarized and interpreted the stimulus created by the sudden perception of a three dimensional installation through a two dimensional canvas. On the other hand, she also took the glittering moments of a starry sky and through the canvas presents countless points of light hidden in timeless cosmic space, showcasing an instant of light “Like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like dew or a flash of lighting,” with those countless glittering “moments” connecting the infiniteness of the cosmos. Ultimately, an unprecedented momentous energy bursts forth from yesterday, today and the future. This is informed by divine, solemn beauty and triggers a great excitement that touches the soul.

Price estimate:
HKD: 12,000,000 - 22,000,000
USD: 1,528,700 - 2,802,500

Auction Result:
HKD: 48,630,000