Healing Energy in Bold Colors and Patterns: Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (AAT)
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
A retrospective in Basel highlighted Yayoi Kusama’s 70+ year career across painting, sculpture, installation, performance, fashion and literature, selling out through its run. Kusama’s art stems from childhood visions and hallucinations, leading to repetitive patterns and infinite, dot-covered worlds. The pumpkin (호박) — a comforting childhood symbol for her — recurs as a personal motif. Her 1999 work Pumpkin (AAT) is a small canvas combining black and yellow, featuring a dot-built pumpkin set against an expanding net pattern that radiates energy. The pumpkin appears flattened here, its tough exterior and vivid yellow interior conveying both strength and warmth. Now 96, Kusama continues to create, sustaining her status as a contemporary art icon and inspiring art lovers worldwide.
