Yayoi Kusama — Pumpkin (T)

Created in 2003, Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (T) belongs to the artist’s most celebrated and instantly legible motif: the pumpkin, developed from the 1980s onward as a personal emblem of groundedness, humor, and obsessive repetition. Kusama (b. 1929) stands among the defining voices of postwar and contemporary art; her visual language—polka dots, seriality, and immersive perception—has been validated by sustained institutional attention, with works held in major museum collections including MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), and Centre Pompidou (Paris).

This example is a screenprint on paper distinguished by its printer’s proof status, issued outside the main edition of 150. Such proofs are produced for the print workshop and are characteristically scarcer on the market than standard-numbered impressions, a factor that materially contributes to long-term collectability within Kusama’s paper works. The composition’s rhythmic dot matrix and tonal modulation translate the artist’s “Infinity Net” sensibility into an organic subject, delivering the hypnotic optical vibration that underpins Kusama’s cultural relevance and enduring demand among international collectors.

The work is signed, titled, numbered, and dated on the front, aligning with the authentication expectations for museum-grade editions. For acquisition rationale, comparable offerings have been observed with an international asking baseline around €106,723 on Artsy, while the indicated purchase level of €84,350 implies a meaningful gap versus the prevailing market context; combined with the artist’s global exhibition profile and the sustained liquidity of her editioned works, Pumpkin (T) represents a focused entry into a blue-chip contemporary icon where rarity (printer’s proof), recognizability (Pumpkins series), and documentation converge.