Oil on canvas

187×147.5 cm. 73 5/8×58 1/8 in.

Titled and signed in English, dated on the reverse

LITERATURE
2011, Yayoi Kusama, Centre Pompidou, Paris, p. 46
Jun 2012, Fame Becomes Her, W Magazine, New York, p. 100
2022, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, Thames & Hudson Ltd and M+, London and Hong Kong, p. 51
EXHIBITED
10 Oct 2011 – 9 Jan 2012, Yayoi Kusama, Centre Pompidou, Paris
12 Nov 2022 – 14 May 2023, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, M+, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

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

Boundless Dark Night, Refined Vision
Important Infinity Black Net Piece by Yayoi Kusama from the 1960s

"Culture is a new product of the times, and it is an important mission of any artist to create an age that can breathe the air of the world. But how do we construct the future from modernity? Expressing the natural forms one can see with one's own eyes is a relic of 19th Century realism ... We should not merely paint objects as we see them, but rather use the relationship between ourselves and the object painted to explore the reality of modern history ... constantly blazing a trail through the inevitability of history."
—Yayoi Kusama, Opening the Eyes of Art, 1952

In 2015, The Art Newspaper described 95-year-old Yayoi Kusama, who calls herself "Queen of the avant-garde," as "the most celebrated artist in the world." Kusama started painting as a young girl, but today the artist's captivating boldness, mind and creativity have carried all before her in terms of developing unprecedented artistic paths. In 1957, having already graduated from the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts she left conservative Japan and moved to New York on her own. In the 1960s, through painting, installation and performance art Kusama advocated for spiritual and physical liberation and self-obliteration. Indeed, in the period between WWII and the Vietnam War she put on "happening" performances that called for "art and love to replace war," constantly challenging tradition and her own personal boundaries. These established her indispensable position in the art worlds of East and West, while also leading trends in global art. Indeed, many art critics have declared that Kusama's artistic expression inspired the "Zero Group" art movement in Europe, a forerunner of Pop art that emphasized "repetition" and "everydayness" as well as soft sculpture, using her self-promoted "entrepreneurial spirit" to conquer the worlds of art and commerce, as she attained her greatest achievements.

Throughout her artistic career, Yayoi Kusama has been achieved countless firsts. In 1966, despite not being invited to participate she took part in the Venice Biennial with the work Narcissus Garden, displaying over 1,000 reflective silver balls which she sold for US$2 each. In this way, the artist not only challenged the authority of the selection system employed by art circles, but also the very value of art. In 1993, officially recognized by the Japanese government Kusama became the first artist to represent the Japanese national pavilion through a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennial. In 2012, director of the Tate Modern in London Frances Morris proposed discarding the museum's Western-centric modernist narrative as a way of proactively discussing an artistic expressiveness that "transcends nationality and history." At that time, the first major event was to invite Yayoi Kusama to hold an exhibition at the museum. In the same year, renowned luxury brand Louis Vuitton invited the artist to engage in her first cross-discipline cooperation project in the field of commercial design. Thereafter, the Japanese artist became a global "cultural idol" and an artistic"superstar."

As of today, the works of Yayoi Kusama have bene collected by more than 50 museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, DC National Gallery of Art, Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou (Pompidou Centre) in Paris, Tate Modern in London, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai. However, her amazing artistic story on the world stage started in New York in the late 1950s.

Blockbuster Success, Art of the Times

In 1959, Yayoi Kusama held her first solo exhibition titled Obsessional Monochrome at the Brata Gallery in New York, where she displayed five huge works, which marked the first time her "Infinity Net" pieces were displayed in public. Each of these works had a black background canvas on which were repeatedly painted continuous unbroken white arcs, connected to form a complex net, presenting viewers with a wonderful scene that extended from the visual to the psychological. The works are slightly dreamy, soul stirring and captivating, as if people are turned into particles in the universe and pulled into a boundless vast space. The exhibition was well received and attracted huge crowds. At the time, renowned US art critic Dore Ashton wrote in a commentary published in the New York Times: "Kusama's works completely eliminate personal emotion and their paranoid repetition can be confusing. In the pictures there appears a composition of boundless extension, with subtle changes in colour that fill the viewer great curiosity, as the works showcase a surprising power." Kusama's elimination of a central area or focal point in the composition and her showcasing of meticulous control ran counter to the artistic mainstream in New York at that time, as represented by William de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, who painted with big bold strokes and passion in all directions, using the debut of her infinity nets to boldly declare in a loud voice to the world "The Yayoi Kusama Era" is here.

Standing out from the Crowd,
Rare Black Net Oil Painting from the 1960s

Research indicates that early first infinity-net works focused on minimalist black, white and red colours, employing the medium of oil on canvas, whereas after 1968, Kusama started to use quick drying acrylic as her main painting media. As such, her oil painting infinity net pieces are only made in the period 1958-1967. Indeed, Kusama has produced fewer than 100 such works throughout her artistic career, of which 12 have been collected by public museums and important private collectors, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, DC National Gallery of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Spanish businessman Alberto Alcocer and artist Donald Jdd. Moreover, infinity-net works from this period account for two of the five highest priced pieces sold by the artist at auctions around the world, an indication of the importance with which they are viewed academically and the extent to which they are eagerly sought after on the market.

"Black net" pieces account for only a small number of Yayoi Kusama's infinity-net works made in 1960s, amounting to fewer than 10 pieces. On this occasion, the work being auctioned is titled Black & Black, is the largest of the aforementioned 10 works and the only infinity-net piece to boldly take only black as its colour and have no contrasting colours. The painting's dimensions are 186.6 x 148cm and it is stunning and impressive. It also first appeared in the artist's New York Studio and immediately stood out from a collection of infinity-net pieces. Thereafter the work was displayed at an important solo exhibition held by Kusama at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and a retrospective at M+ Museum in Hong Kong, in 2012 and 2022 respectively, marking it out as an important museum work from the 1960s, which has been part of the collection of an important private Asian collector for the past 13 years, making its auction an important and rare event.

Divine Black Magic: Empty, Omnipotent,
Hidden and Transcendent

"In the darkness there is flickering, light then dark
Busy reminiscing about the past ... I pile hundreds of paintings up high
The colour of the brushwork and different combinations are clear
Looking at the darkness
I crawl and open the door to my soul
I stand on the land and the phantoms of last night fill the sky."
—Yayoi Kusama, Swinging in the Air, 1978

In the Western art world, Italian Renaissance painter Tintoretto said: The most beautiful colour of all is black, while renowned Fauvist school painter Henri Matisse believed: black is a kind of power. Indeed, Caravaggio and Rembrandt were famous for their unique Chiaroscuro, used large volumes of black in their paintings to create dramatic effect through powerful contrasts of light and dark.

Chinese ink painting talks about "the five colours of ink," which is to say that even when using one colour of ink, paintings can still have rich changes in colour. In ancient times black was considered one of the noble "five colours" (cyan, yellow, red, white and black) and can be seen at many important venues such as the Forbidden City and The Imperial Ancestral Temple. In addition, the basic colours of many religious buildings in Japan are red and black. Moreover, the belief that black was "mysterious," and the "the sky, colour of the sky" also corresponds to the Taoist philosophy that viewed black as "formless, soundless, without beginning or end, existence that transcends space and the source of all things." As such, in Asia black represents emptiness, and nothingness but is even more a "transcendent" and "hidden power". In terms of religion, Tibetan, Chinese or Japanese Buddhism have the deity of Mahakala and believe that all other colours can be absorbed by black. In this sense, Mahakala represents "omnipotence," his wisdom protects the Dharma and he is the God of wealth. Certainly, coming from Japan, Kusama is aware of the unique cultural and aesthetic meaning of dark black in Asian culture and it was in 1961 that she made the work Black & Black.

Yayoi Kusama once said: "I want to condense colours to the simplest black and white, use this to create all things and search for new expressive forms." Many of her earliest infinity-net works involve the contrast between a black background and white net, but in Black & Black she expands this artistic form to its extreme and boldly seeks to create spatial depth of field with "monochrome colour." If we review the artist's works throughout her career, it could be said that this approach is unprecedented which ensures her art works stand out from those of her contemporaries and highlights Kusama's rare talent.

Ocean of Time and Spirit, Epiphany of Enso

As part of this large vertical work, at the edges of the painting we can see the initial base colour was red, but this was discarded by Kusama with the front completely covered by suffocating black, on which she intensively and repeatedly adds arc-shaped brushstrokes. These cover and eliminate each other, while giving rise to new life with captivating tension developing within, each brushstroke like drawing a circle in the air, which brings to mind the Enso in Japanese Zen painting. Zen masters would paint a large black circle in one unbroken stroke on rice paper with a brush dipped in ink, representing "enlightenment" and "infinity." Moreover, in the black background which was originally empty and silent Kusama introduces a series of connected and overlapping arcs that not only build up into a "physical sensation of infinite extension" in the space of the canvas, with each stroke as if corresponding to the breathes taken by the artist, recording "each moment" of life's existence. In addition, the dots of light hidden in the flow of consciousness powerfully declare "their own physical existence" and "the existence of spirit and ideas" that transcend space.

At first glance the work is completely black, but within the silent emptiness without beginning or end, form or colour, the space extends outwards, expanding into infinity, with flashes of flowing life and ideas with great existential power. It is between the dramatic contrast of emptiness and existence, reality and virtuality, simplicity and richness that viewers are encouraged to meditate on this fantasy land, covered by the magic of the warm blackness, sailing with it on this sea of time and spirit. In 1960, Yayoi Kusama wrote: "It is perhaps unsurprising that in boundless time, I repeat the brushstroke tens of thousands of times, but this ‘meaningless' accumulation is in fact a never-ending fight against eternity. I often work 50-60 hours in one go, and gradually come to feel as though I have descended into the curse of accumulation and repetition, deep inside the net ... I always stand at the center of obsession, fighting the physical passion inside me for accumulation and repetition, and being lost here captures me in this nameless curse. I am unable to explain why I paint these nets, perhaps it is as simple as ‘there is time there' ."

Courage to Face the Darkness, Shimmering Moonlight

If we look in more detail at Black & Black, there are clear differences in the brightness and depth of the ink, with carbon black, pitch black, matte black and glossy black. As Japanese Ukio-e painting master Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) said: "One type of black is old black, another is fresh black ... black under the sun and black in the shadows." The black in the center and lower part of Black & Black is particularly deep and the texture especially thick. Kusama delicately uses this to create near, far, expansion and contraction within the monochrome space. In contrast, the central area of the work is dark like a black hole, to which the eyes of viewers are unconsciously drawn, as if stepping into a different time and space, replete with unknowns and imagination, in the same way the artist created the black net work Revived Soul in 1995. In addition, the upper and lower levels of turpentine used to adjust the oils at different times contract and dried at different speeds, which gives the black a natural white crack pattern. Kusama deliberately retains these cracks and they become an element in the work that from a distance resembles twinkling stars in the night sky, or the deep darkness of the ocean at night, casting light on the water whenever a wave breaks. It is also as if the faint moonlight on the waves always guides us forward, from a troubled mind or a gloomy dark side, as even barely discernible light can still guide people back from the path of destruction to rebirth. In this sense, the work offers viewers an extremely poetic imagination.

In 1955, Yayoi Kusama wrote: "I turn my head and listened intently to those things hidden in the undercurrent of life and in my own way feel that huge flow. My heart right now seek out a secluded and secret world, where all things, the flirtatious and gorgeous colours in dark places and their delicate beauty exist in a fragile condition. Also hidden is a strong tenacity that is neither haughty nor humble, but as charismatic as a world in in which wild beasts chew on flower petals. I sing the praises of the dark side hidden in this world and admire the small part showcased of the whole." Moreover, directly facing the darkness and showcasing "a strong tenacity that is neither haughty nor humble" while admiring the spirit of life is perfectly reflected in Black & Black.

A Response to the Times, Bold and Immortal Achievements

If we go back to 1961 when this work was created, Kusama became famous overnight in New York with her infinity-net works. In 1960, the Stephen Radich Gallery signed a long-term contract to serve as her agent and the following year her infinity-net works were nominated as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art's annual Contemporary American Painting Exhibition, where she and Georgia O'Keeffe were the only two female artists, an indication of the high esteem in which Kusama was already held. It was in this period that Black & Black was completed, in which the artist employed her powerful visual language and minimalistic colours, deducing complexity from simplicity and the most minimalist of colours to create a work rich in references, perfectly showcasing the avant-garde, fearlessness, self-innovation and transcendence of Yayoi Kusama.

In 1949, renowned American abstract artist Barnett Newman created Abraham, the first completely black painting in Western art history and from 1958-1960 Frank Stella started a series of "Black Paintings." However, Yayoi Kusama's Black & Black escapes the formalism of the former by deepening the Asian text and psychedelic dramatic tension. To that end, she employs her distinctive painting language to create infinity in the silent emptiness, in such a way that viewers can transcend the black fog and realize the existence of body and spirit. Moreover, directly facing the darkness, facing the light with perseverance and persistence is certainly the artist's best response to the age in which she lives. As Kusama has said: "Through art I try, one step at a time, to get closer to the blazing flames of the burning soul", and in that context Black & Black is a stunning tour de force and an outstanding example of the artist's timelessness.

Price estimate:
HKD 12,000,000 – 18,000,000
USD 1,538,500 – 2,307,700

Auction Result:
HKD: 14,190,000