Yayoi Kusama // Nets & Red No.8, 1958

  • Yayoi Kusama, Nets & Red No. 8, 1958. Pastel and netting on paper, 25.4 × 20.3 cm. An early work exploring Kusama’s Infinity Net motif with layered textures and red tonal contrasts.
    Nets & Red No. 8, 1958
    Pastel and netting on paper, 25.4 × 20.3 cm (10 × 8 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
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    Yayoi Kusama’s Nets & Red No. 8 (1958) is an early work on paper in pastel and netting, measuring 25.4 × 20.3 cm. Created shortly after her arrival in New York, the piece reflects the formative years of her Infinity Net series, which would become central to her career. The combination of pastel and netting produces a tactile surface that captures both delicacy and intensity, signalling her early experiments with repetition and materiality.
     
    This work highlights Kusama’s fascination with the endless layering of marks and forms, a method she developed as both a visual language and a therapeutic process. The red tonalities add vibrancy and energy, while the nets anticipate the vast, obsessive canvases she would produce throughout the 1960s. As one of her early surviving works, it provides a vital link to the origins of her artistic practice.

  • “I am deeply interested in trying to understand the universe by obliterating myself with polka dots.”

     — Yayoi Kusama

    Nets & Red No. 8 demonstrates Kusama’s ability, even in the 1950s, to merge abstraction with psychological depth. It reflects her desire to express infinity through repetition, setting the stage for the groundbreaking paintings, installations, and performances that followed.