Pumpkin, 2016

For Yayoi Kusama, pumpkins represent a source of radiant energy and are perhaps her most beloved motif, appearing in paintings, drawings, sculptures, and some of her most important installations. Both endearing and grotesque, the giant gourds have inspired Kusama since her childhood in prewar Japan, when she was surrounded by her family's seed nursery. In one of her autobiographical poems, she wrote, "Pumpkins bring about poetic peace in my mind. Pumpkins talk to me." This work was shown in conjunction with Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, a 2017 exhibition tracing the artist's iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms over five decades and exploring how the installations developed from a strategy of "self-obliteration" during the Vietnam War to a means of social harmony in the present, alongside other key artworks including recent large-scale paintings and soft sculptures.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States