Yayoi Kusama // Sex Obsession C, 1992

  • Sex-Obsession C, 1992. Acrylic on canvas, 194 × 130.3 cm. A monumental work exploring Kusama’s themes of sexuality, obsession, and the dissolution of bodily form into pattern.
    Sex-Obsession C, 1992
    Acrylic on canvas, 194 × 130.3 cm (76 3/8 × 51 1/4 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
    Back to Yayoi Kusama Originals page
     
    Painted in 1992, Sex-Obsession C reflects Kusama’s long-standing engagement with sexuality, psychological intensity, and bodily imagery. Since the 1960s, her work has confronted themes of eroticism and desire through both sculpture and performance, often using repetition and accumulation to transform provocative forms into patterned, almost abstract fields. In this large canvas, her use of acrylic translates those ideas into two-dimensional space, creating a composition that is simultaneously bodily, obsessive, and meditative.
     
    The early 1990s marked a period of renewed global recognition for Kusama, as she revisited the central themes of her career with a new confidence. Works such as Sex-Obsession C demonstrate her ability to merge deeply personal visions with universal questions of desire, compulsion, and identity. The monumental scale intensifies the subject, pulling the viewer into a space where erotic imagery and obsessive repetition dissolve the boundary between the physical body and psychological experience.

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

     – Yayoi Kusama

    The monumental scale and repetitive surface of Sex-Obsession C amplify its impact, enveloping the viewer in a field of desire, compulsion, and vulnerability. In doing so, the work not only reflects Kusama’s own struggles but also situates her firmly within the international avant-garde of the late 20th century, reaffirming her role as an artist who consistently pushed the boundaries of subject matter, form, and expression.