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Lot Essay
The waves of undulating painted loops that distinguish this early example of Yayoi Kusama’s iconic Infinity Nets are exemplary of the artist’s most famous forms which have been present in her art since childhood. The hypnotic strokes that roll across the surface of the canvas envelop the viewer; passages of dusky pinks and warm orange flow in alternating bands, completely consuming the surface of the work. The composition is made up of semi-circular arches of pigment, leaving only the slightest glimpses of a soft layer of underpainting. Kusama’s strokes vary from light applications of paint, to more globular strokes that allow for one to directly note the artist’s hand. Her process often involves beginning in one corner of the canvas, which is laid flat on a table or work surface in front of her, before applying the scalloped forms without a pre-determined direction or arrangement in mind. The interplay of shades creates different shapes within the nets, bringing the work to life. Red Nets has been in the same family since the painting was acquired directly from the artist in 1966. Frank Okazaki, and his wife, Frances, were good friends with the Japanese-American artists James Tanaka and Ken Nishi, who likely introduced Okazaki to the work of Yayoi Kusama and inspired their purchase of Red Nets in 1966.
Kusama’s work comes from recreating of the hallucinations that have affected her since childhood. Starting at the age of ten, the artist would hallucinations appear before her eyes, completely enveloping her field of vision. She has described how the hallucinations have left her in debilitative states, making her Infinity Nets all the more powerful as they help the artist process her experiences. These paintings would often be created while Kusama was in an almost transcendental state, where she would compulsively paint for forty or fifty hours at a time without sleeping. The artist once said of the experience that, “the room, my body, the entire universe was filled with [patterns], my self was eliminated, and I had returned and was reduced to the infinity of eternal time and absolute space. This was not an illusion but a reality” (Y. Kusama, quoted in L. Hoptman, Yayoi Kusama, London 2000, p. 36).
Born in 1929 in Japan, Kusama has had a long and prolific career. Her work sits in its own realm between Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism, possessing expressive brush strokes, an often monochrome color palate, and reduced forms. Yet she resists categorization, arguing that her works are manifestations of herself and not simply parts of a movement. In 1958, the artist moved to New York to take part in the burgeoning art scene there. Georgia O’Keefe was one of her first supporters, writing to the artist and inviting her to her home in New Mexico. While in New York, Kusama’s practice began to grow, from small gouaches to full sized room instillations, and by 1960 she was one of the leading figures in New York’s art scene. Around the same time that Red Nets was painted in the mid 1960’s, Kusama was working in the same building as Donald Judd and exchanging ideas with Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and Andy Warhol. The artist continued to work in New York until her move back to Japan is the 1970s. Still working in her 80s, Kusama remains one of the most important artists of her generation, bridging the gap between East and West. Her work continues to draw crowds at major museums around the world, with recent retrospectives at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the National Art Center in Tokyo, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
Kusama’s work comes from recreating of the hallucinations that have affected her since childhood. Starting at the age of ten, the artist would hallucinations appear before her eyes, completely enveloping her field of vision. She has described how the hallucinations have left her in debilitative states, making her Infinity Nets all the more powerful as they help the artist process her experiences. These paintings would often be created while Kusama was in an almost transcendental state, where she would compulsively paint for forty or fifty hours at a time without sleeping. The artist once said of the experience that, “the room, my body, the entire universe was filled with [patterns], my self was eliminated, and I had returned and was reduced to the infinity of eternal time and absolute space. This was not an illusion but a reality” (Y. Kusama, quoted in L. Hoptman, Yayoi Kusama, London 2000, p. 36).
Born in 1929 in Japan, Kusama has had a long and prolific career. Her work sits in its own realm between Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism, possessing expressive brush strokes, an often monochrome color palate, and reduced forms. Yet she resists categorization, arguing that her works are manifestations of herself and not simply parts of a movement. In 1958, the artist moved to New York to take part in the burgeoning art scene there. Georgia O’Keefe was one of her first supporters, writing to the artist and inviting her to her home in New Mexico. While in New York, Kusama’s practice began to grow, from small gouaches to full sized room instillations, and by 1960 she was one of the leading figures in New York’s art scene. Around the same time that Red Nets was painted in the mid 1960’s, Kusama was working in the same building as Donald Judd and exchanging ideas with Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and Andy Warhol. The artist continued to work in New York until her move back to Japan is the 1970s. Still working in her 80s, Kusama remains one of the most important artists of her generation, bridging the gap between East and West. Her work continues to draw crowds at major museums around the world, with recent retrospectives at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the National Art Center in Tokyo, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London.