Yayoi Kusama // Shellfish, 1989

  • Yayoi Kusama, Shellfish, 1989. Screenprint, 45 × 53 cm, edition of 100. Features Kusama’s stylised depiction of shellfish combined with bold colours and rhythmic patterns, characteristic of her late 1980s printmaking.
    Shellfish, 1989
    Screenprint, 45 × 53 cm, Edition of 100
    © Yayoi Kusama. 
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    Yayoi Kusama’s Shellfish (1989) is a screenprint measuring 45 × 53 cm, produced in an edition of 100. The work reflects Kusama’s fascination with organic forms, here turning her attention to the shellfish as a subject rich in texture and symbolism. Its graphic contours and rhythmic patterning transform a familiar natural object into a bold and hypnotic image.
     
    In this print, the shellfish is not depicted as a simple still life but reimagined through Kusama’s distinctive lens of repetition and abstraction. The form becomes a vehicle for her exploration of infinity and self-obliteration, echoing the cycles of nature and the vast interconnectedness of life.
     
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  • “I have always been interested in infinity, in the endless repetition of life.”

     — Yayoi Kusama

    As with many of her editioned works from the late 1980s, Shellfish demonstrates Kusama’s ability to elevate ordinary subjects into extraordinary visions. The print captures her unique capacity to merge the microscopic and the cosmic, revealing the infinite potential she sees in even the smallest details of the natural world.