Yayoi Kusama // Repetitive Vision, 1967

  • Yayoi Kusama, Repetitive-Vision, 1963. Stamps on paper, 50.8 × 83.1 cm. Large Accumulation series work made from repeated airmail stamps, signed and dated.
    Repetitive-Vision, 1963
    Stamps on paper, 50.8 × 83.1 cm (20 × 32¾ in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
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    Repetitive-Vision was created in 1963, when Yayoi Kusama was based in New York and experimenting with the idea of seriality across different media. Measuring 50.8 × 83.1 cm, the work is composed of stamps arranged on paper, signed and dated both on the front and reverse.
     
    It belongs to the Accumulation series, in which Kusama transformed everyday materials into patterns of obsessive repetition. The title reflects her concern with the act of seeing multiplied infinitely, a concept central to her artistic vision during this period.

  • “My life is a repetition of images. The repetition itself becomes the vision.”

    – Yayoi Kusama

    The composition consists of rows of airmail stamps systematically arranged to cover the paper’s surface. By repeating a standardised image across a large field, Kusama creates a dense pattern that functions visually like her Infinity Nets, but with physical objects instead of painted marks. The enlarged scale of Repetitive-Vision compared to her smaller Airmail–Accumulation highlights the ambition of the piece, turning common postage stamps into an all-over field that blurs the line between image, object, and surface. Works such as this demonstrate her ability to adapt the logic of repetition to multiple formats, situating her alongside developments in both Pop Art and Minimalism while remaining distinctively her own.