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Lot Essay
Cute, rotund, and always covered in dots, the polka-dotted pumpkin has become the international logo and personal trademark of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Whether painted in shades of red, yellow or green, executed as a giant stainless steel sculpture or an ornament that fits in the palm of your hand, Kusama's pumpkins are universally sought after and recognized for their humorous appearance and kitschy appeal. But why is the image of the pumpkin so pervasive?
In selecting the humble pumpkin as her personal symbol, Kusama has intentionally chosen an object that is so banal and everyday it gets overlooked. Yet, by placing pumpkins in whimsical settings and rendering them in fantastical colors, Kusama breathes life into these inanimate objects. Even at her advanced age, Kusama is an accomplished technical painter, and through her precise forms and geometry, a gourd is rendered with personality and individual identity. Some sit up squat and at-attention, while others slouch in distinctly human manner. Irregularities become a part of personality. Pumpkins become a stand-in for the human form.
Among all the squashes and gourds that Kusama has painted, Midnight Pumpkin is an exceptional work and a rare example of a multi-hued pumpkin painting. A black-and-yellow spotted pumpkin is juxtaposed against an electric purple and teal backdrop. The bold, clean geometry of the gourd's bulges contrasts nicely against the geometric ground. The title is also suggestive of one possible reason for Kusama's fascination with pumpkins: in traditional folklore, midnight is a transitional time when magic becomes possible and reality is uncertain. Most famously, midnight marked the moment when Cinderella's gilded carriage transformed back into its original pumpkin form.
Whether this work depicts a pumpkin on the verge of metamorphosing into something spectacular, or a glamourous object now returned to its true state of being, Midnight Pumpkin can be viewed as a reminder of the beauty and transformative potential of everyday objects. From Kusama's perspective, the latent potential of a pumpkin is magical in its own way, having transformed from a simple vegetable into an icon symbolizing her artistic superstardom. Or perhaps the pumpkins embody a simpler meaning: a reminder to be humble and to face life with a sense of humor.
In selecting the humble pumpkin as her personal symbol, Kusama has intentionally chosen an object that is so banal and everyday it gets overlooked. Yet, by placing pumpkins in whimsical settings and rendering them in fantastical colors, Kusama breathes life into these inanimate objects. Even at her advanced age, Kusama is an accomplished technical painter, and through her precise forms and geometry, a gourd is rendered with personality and individual identity. Some sit up squat and at-attention, while others slouch in distinctly human manner. Irregularities become a part of personality. Pumpkins become a stand-in for the human form.
Among all the squashes and gourds that Kusama has painted, Midnight Pumpkin is an exceptional work and a rare example of a multi-hued pumpkin painting. A black-and-yellow spotted pumpkin is juxtaposed against an electric purple and teal backdrop. The bold, clean geometry of the gourd's bulges contrasts nicely against the geometric ground. The title is also suggestive of one possible reason for Kusama's fascination with pumpkins: in traditional folklore, midnight is a transitional time when magic becomes possible and reality is uncertain. Most famously, midnight marked the moment when Cinderella's gilded carriage transformed back into its original pumpkin form.
Whether this work depicts a pumpkin on the verge of metamorphosing into something spectacular, or a glamourous object now returned to its true state of being, Midnight Pumpkin can be viewed as a reminder of the beauty and transformative potential of everyday objects. From Kusama's perspective, the latent potential of a pumpkin is magical in its own way, having transformed from a simple vegetable into an icon symbolizing her artistic superstardom. Or perhaps the pumpkins embody a simpler meaning: a reminder to be humble and to face life with a sense of humor.