Pouches – Yayoi Kusama, Black Pumpkin

Kusama created her first pumpkin painting as a teenager in 1946. She likened the ritual of painting pumpkins to Zen meditation: ‘I would confront the spirit of the pumpkin, forgetting everything else, and concentrate my mind entirely on the form before me.’

In the late 1970s Kusama returned to one of the most nurturing and wondrous life forms of her childhood. Initially painting yellow-and-black or black-and-white dotted pumpkins, she has seamlessly transformed the image of the pumpkin into sculptures, infinity mirror rooms and a multitude of commercial products, elevating it to one of the most recognised icons of contemporary art worldwide.

Yayoi Kusama
Pumpkin 1991
acrylic on canvas
91.0 x 116.7 cm
Collection of the artist