Yayoi Kusama // Untitled, 1970 (acrylic on board)

  • Yayoi Kusama, Untitled, 1970. Acrylic on board, 78.3 × 82.3 cm. Signed and dated. A transitional work bridging her New York avant-garde years and her introspective return to Japan.
    Untitled, 1970
    Acrylic on board, 78.3 × 82.3 cm (30 7/8 × 32 3/8 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only.

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    Executed in 1970, this Untitled painting reflects Yayoi Kusama’s continued exploration of obsessive patterning during a pivotal stage in her artistic development. By this point, she had achieved international recognition, with her Infinity Nets and soft sculptures firmly establishing her as a central figure within the New York avant-garde.
     
    The bold use of acrylic on board highlights her ongoing interest in scale, surface, and material experimentation. By moving beyond traditional canvas supports, Kusama expanded the formal and conceptual boundaries of her painting practice, linking it more closely with the immersive environments and installations that defined her late 1960s and early 1970s work.

  • "Polka dots are a way to infinity.” 

    – Yayoi Kusama

    Created just before her return to Japan in the early 1970s, the work marks a shift away from large-scale performances and installations toward a more introspective studio-based practice. It stands at the threshold between her radical New York presence and the deeply personal, psychologically charged works that would define her subsequent decades.