Yayoi Kusama // Yellow Vase, 1979

  • Yayoi Kusama, Yellow Vase, 1979. Acrylic, watercolour, and ink on paper, 62.5 × 50.7 cm. A post-New York work reflecting Kusama’s transformation of everyday forms into psychologically charged compositions.
    Yellow Vase, 1979
    Acrylic, watercolour and ink on paper, 62.5 × 50.7 cm (24 5/8 × 20 in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only. 
     
    Painted in 1979, Yellow Vase reflects Kusama’s experimental use of media during her post-New York years in Japan. By combining acrylic, watercolour, and ink, she created a dynamic interplay of colour and line that reveals her ongoing interest in layering and surface. The vase motif introduces a domestic and intimate subject, yet through repetition and bold patterning, Kusama transforms it into an object charged with psychological resonance.
     
    This period marked a deepening of her introspective practice, as she continued to develop smaller-scale works that carried forward the themes of obsession and infinity established in the 1960s. Yellow Vase exemplifies how Kusama reinterpreted everyday forms into symbolic compositions, bridging her avant-garde legacy with the personal, visionary art that came to define her later career.

  • “I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.”

     – Yayoi Kusama

    Through works like Yellow Vase, Kusama demonstrated how her practice turned everyday objects into vehicles for exploring inner states. The familiar form of the vase is reimagined through obsessive detail and layered media, suggesting that even the most ordinary subjects could hold symbolic weight when filtered through her unique vision. This transformation reflects her broader philosophy: that art was both a response to and a release from her lifelong psychological struggles.