Yayoi Kusama // Hat (A.B), 2002

  • Yayoi Kusama, Hat (A.B), 2002. Acrylic on canvas, 15.8 × 22.7 cm. A small painting where Kusama transforms a domestic object into a meditation on obsession and infinity.
    Hat (A.B), 2002
    Acrylic on canvas, 15.8 × 22.7 cm (6 1/4 × 9 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
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    Painted in 2002, Hat (A.B) reflects Kusama’s continued interest in reimagining everyday objects through her unique visual language of repetition and obsession. The modest form of a hat, an item associated with both personal identity and cultural expression, is here transformed by her patterned approach into a symbol that transcends its ordinary function.
     
    The intimate scale of the painting draws the viewer into close engagement, highlighting the painstaking detail that defines Kusama’s mature practice. By applying the same rigour to a small domestic object as she did to monumental pumpkins or immersive installations, Kusama demonstrates how every subject could serve as a vessel for her core themes of infinity, accumulation, and psychological depth.

  • “Accumulation is the result of my obsession, and obsession is the wellspring of my art.”

     – Yayoi Kusama

    Pieces such as Hat (A.B) show how she could balance playfulness with intensity, taking a simple domestic object and infusing it with the same obsessive repetition that characterises her most iconic series. In doing so, Kusama elevated the everyday into an emblem of her artistic vision, collapsing the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The work demonstrates her ability to find psychological depth and symbolic resonance in even the most modest subjects, reinforcing the universality of her language of dots, nets, and accumulation.