Yayoi Kusama // Flower, 1956

  • Yayoi Kusama, Flower, 1956. Mixed media on paper, 60 × 45 cm. Stylised floral composition, signed and dated on affixed label to the reverse.
    Flower, 1956
    Mixed media on paper, 60 × 45 cm (23 5/8 × 17 3/4 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 

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    Painted in 1956, Flower illustrates a significant stage in Yayoi Kusama’s development as she refined her mixed media techniques on paper. During this period, she was actively broadening her visual vocabulary, experimenting with the interaction between gouache, acrylic, and pastel to create complex surface effects and subtle tonal variations. This hands-on approach to materiality marked an important step toward the distinctive aesthetic that would later define her mature practice.

     

    The floral subject highlights Kusama’s enduring fascination with organic forms and natural imagery. Motifs drawn from the natural world became a central thread throughout her career, recurring across paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and large-scale installations. Flower offers valuable insight into how these themes took shape during her formative years, revealing the foundations of a visual language that would evolve over subsequent decades.

  • "Polka dots and flowers are the symbols of the love I have for the earth.”

    – Yayoi Kusama

    Measuring 60 × 45 cm, the composition is larger than many of Kusama’s earlier paper works. The mixed media approach creates layered textures, with areas of colour and line interacting to build a stylised floral form. The motif is reduced to essential shapes rather than naturalistic detail, emphasising structure over description. The reverse bears an affixed label signed and dated by Kusama, underscoring her practice of carefully recording authorship even in experimental works from this period.