Pumpkin
A yellow pumpkin with black dots at the end of a pier on the island of Naoshima. Dots have accompanied Kusama since childhood.
The dots grow smaller towards the top, making the pumpkin look round and alive.
Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan. Her family ran a plant nursery, and she grew up among flowers, plants and pumpkins. Even as a child she experienced hallucinations in which the world was covered in dots and patterns. She has said that pumpkins gave her a sense of security. They have accompanied her throughout her life and become one of her most important motifs.
Pumpkin is a large sculpture in the form of a yellow pumpkin with black dots. It stands at the end of a pier on the island of Naoshima in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. The pumpkin is about two metres high. It has a rounded, slightly uneven appearance with deep furrows. The dots are black on a yellow ground, arranged in rows along the furrows, and they become smaller towards the top.
The composition rests on the contrast between the pumpkin and the landscape. The yellow form stands alone on the pier against the sea and the sky. The simple motif stands out clearly in the calm surroundings. The setting means that visitors see the pumpkin against the horizon and the water, like a signal or a landmark.
The sculpture is made of fibreglass-reinforced plastic and painted yellow and black. The material is light and durable, yet still vulnerable to wind and weather. Dots play an important role in Kusama’s art. She has described them as a way of obliterating herself, of dissolving into infinity.
Kusama lived in New York from the late 1950s to the early 1970s and was active in the avant-garde there. She made paintings with infinite net patterns, mirrored installations and much-publicised happenings. After returning to Japan she chose to live in a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, with her studio nearby. She has continued to work intensively. Her major retrospectives have drawn very large audiences around the world.
The pumpkin was placed on Naoshima in 1994 in connection with an exhibition. Since then the island has become a centre for contemporary art, with museums and outdoor artworks, run by the company Benesse. In August 2021 the sculpture was torn loose by a typhoon and badly damaged. It was remade and returned to the pier in 2022. Kusama has also made a red pumpkin, which stands by the harbour on Naoshima.
Pumpkin has become one of the best-known symbols of Naoshima and of Kusama’s art. Visitors from all over the world travel to the island to see it, and it is constantly photographed. Kusama is one of the world’s most popular contemporary artists, and her dots and pumpkins have spread through exhibitions, fashion and merchandise.