Yayoi Kusama // Ground, 1953

  • Yayoi Kusama, Ground, 1953. Pastel, watercolor, and ink on paper, 35.9 × 25.7 cm. Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse.
    Ground, 1953
    Pastel, watercolour and ink on paper, 35.9 × 25.7 cm (14 1/8 × 10 1/8 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 

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    Executed in 1953, Ground is an early work by Yayoi Kusama, created when the artist was 24 years old. Combining pastel, watercolor, and ink on paper, the piece highlights Kusama’s willingness to experiment with multiple media during her formative years in Japan.
     
    This layering of materials produced luminous colour fields and intricate detail, revealing her ambition to push beyond conventional modes of drawing. Ground captures a moment when Kusama was beginning to forge the distinctive visual language that would define her international career.

  • "My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate them into visual forms, so others might experience my inner world.”

    – Yayoi Kusama

    The surface of the composition is animated by vibrant washes of watercolor, softened by pastel and sharpened with ink outlines. This dynamic interplay between opacity and translucency suggests an underlying tension between structure and dissolution, a theme that would persist throughout Kusama’s later Infinity Nets and environmental installations. The title, inscribed on the reverse alongside her signature, grounds the work in a sense of place and materiality, even as the composition leans toward abstraction. Signed and dated multiple times, the work demonstrates her meticulous approach to authorship and her commitment to documentation.