Year: 1978
Medium: enamel on paper
Dimensions: 27.2 x 24.2 cm (9 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
This is part of a series of enamel spray paintings on colored paper, produced by the artist in large numbers around 1978. Kusama published her first novel, “Manhattan Suicide Addict,” in the same year. She was living as an in-patient in Japan, suffering from mental and physical problems, having returned to the country after the death of her then-partner Joseph Cornell. This period also marked a major turning point for Kusama following her previously active lifestyle in New York, where she had even come to be referred to as the “Queen of Happenings.” Kusama had already gained recognition as a painter with her “Infinity Nets” series, this spray-painted series is a development of the net motif that has become synonymous with her name. The three colors affixed to the support through the mesh of netting fold over one another in a hallucinatory manner, depicting the expansive vision of Kusama’s mind even in this diminutive work. The work gives an insight into why Kusama’s nets are given the prefix “infinity.”
