Yayoi Kusama // NO. AA2, 1960

  • Yayoi Kusama, No. AA2, 1960. Oil on canvas, 60.8 × 72.4 cm. Infinity Net composition with repeated loops, signed, titled, and dated on the reverse.
    No. AA2, 1960
    Oil on canvas, 60.8 × 72.4 cm (24 × 28 ½ in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
     
    No. AA2 was painted in 1960, when Yayoi Kusama was living in New York and beginning to establish her Infinity Net style. Executed in oil on canvas and measuring 60.8 × 72.4 cm, the work reflects her use of repeated brushstrokes to create dense, continuous surfaces. Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse, the painting is typical of her early methodical approach to both composition and documentation.

  • “My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering.”

    – Yayoi Kusama

    The canvas is covered with rhythmic loops of oil paint that accumulate into a field without a fixed centre or boundary. This structure embodies Kusama’s early exploration of infinity through repetition, a technique that distinguished her from the Abstract Expressionists working in New York at the time. The mid-sized format places it between her smaller board studies and the large-scale canvases she would soon exhibit, making it a representative example of her transition into mature Infinity Nets.