Pumpkin

1994　FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic), urethane paint
200.0cm x 250.0cm x 250.0cm

KUSAMA Yayoi

b. 1929, Nagano-2026,Tokyo

A huge yellow pumpkin suddenly appeared for one month, in October 1994, in front of a bank on a busy street in the Tenjin area of Fukuoka City. As a part of the art project Museum City Tenjin ’94 Fukuoka, Japan, in which many works of contemporary art were installed in the district, this Pumpkin was Kusama’s first outdoor sculpture. It attracted enormous public attention and changed the whole local cityscape. This piece became the first of many colorful and distinctive public sculptures by Kusama, including such motifs as flowers and hats as well as pumpkins, which today are installed in numerous locations around the world.

While the motifs of dots, nets and flowers appearing frequently in Kusama’s works emerged as a means of overcoming hallucinations from which she has suffered since childhood, her interest in pumpkins was focused on its form. She has described being drawn to the pumpkin’s features such as its “charming shape” and “generous, plain appearance,” and of deriving “vigorous mental strength” from it ever since. The round shape filled with vitality and the contrast of dots against yellow background cannot fail to have an energetic impact on viewers. This piece became part of our collection in 1996 and has been exhibited since then on the Esplanade, the open-air space on the second floor.