Venus Nets (R) and Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets (R) belongs to one of thirteen works from the Venus series produced by the artist in 1998. In the work, the graceful and elegant contours of the statue of Venus de Milo emerges from Kusama’s iconic Infinity Nets, camouflaged against the identically patterned canvas in the background. While ten editions were first shown in “Yayoi Kusama Now” at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York the same year, the present lot is one of the three alternate editions and had been collected by Komagane Kogen Art Museum in Japan. The exemplary series brings together a number of notable elements from the artist’s psychedelic practice during mid 1960’s to the present. The pairing of red and black colour in this edition especially highlights one of Kusama’s most popular colour palettes.

Kusama’s era-defining Infinity Nets motif is one of the most important and distinctive visual codes within contemporary art discourse. The artist once declared, “painting, which is powerful enough to wrap up the whole universe, not to mention the earth, is Kusama’s Infinity Nets. I will probably continue to paint this endless web, which I have worked on for the past 40 years. Yayoi Kusama is unchangeable” (Yayoi Kusama Recent Oil Paintings, Ota Fine Art, 1998). Its initial appearance can be traced back to an early series of watercolor works entitled Pacific Ocean from 1959. Created with a simple movement of the wrist, the organic pattern was a meditative channel for the artist to transcend the plague of ongoing hallucinations to the real world. Kusama’s repetitive stream of minute painted arcs,first caught the eyes of then art critic Donald Judd, who wrote in his 1959 essay, “the effect [of Kusama's Infinity Nets] is both complex and simple. Essentially it is produced by the interaction of the two close somewhat parallel planes… at points merging at the surface plane and at others diverging slightly but powerfully” (James Romaine, Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Nets: Sublime or Spectacle?, Cardus, 2009). Reaffirming Judd’s view, the overall reception to the early Infinity Nets paintings along with the soft sculptural Accumulation series was positive. While some critics have praised Kusama’s bold ambition to overturn the popular Abstract Expressionism ideal at the time, others have later associated the repetitive and monotonous aesthetics of her works to giving rise to Andy Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper and Minimalism.

As Kusama further developed her Infinity Nets, the repetitive scheme can be seen in the form of mirrored installation, soft sculptures, and notorious performance works, endlessly covering ready-made objects and performers under a “net” of notable symbols such as: phalluses, macaroni, and polka dots. This series of extension can clearly be seen in both Pumpkin and the Venus series. Kusama has coined this process ‘obliteration’, which is further seen in the title of Venus series. She once explained on its origin, “artists do not usually express their own psychological complexes directly, but I use my complexes and fears as subjects. I am terrified by just the thought of something long and ugly like a phallus entering me, and that is why I make so many of them. The thought of continually eating something like macaroni, spat out by machinery, fills me with fear and revulsion, so I make macaroni sculptures. I make them and make them and then keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process. I call this ‘obliteration’” (Yayoi Kusama, Tate Modern, 2012). In an interview with Damien Hirst during the exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery, Kusama also elaborated on the first time she experienced the effect of self-obliteration, “when I was a child, one day I was walking the field, then all of a sudden, the sky became bright over the mountains, and I saw clearly the very image I was about to paint appear in the sky. I also saw violets which I was painting multiply to cover the doors, windows and even my body. It was then I learned the idea of self-obliteration. I immediately transferred the idea onto a canvas. It was hallucination only the mentally ill can experience” (Yayoi Kusama: Now, Robert Miller Gallery, 1998).

The obliterated figure of Venus de Milo is further reminiscent of the image of Kusama in her pioneering self-obliterating collages and happenings from the 1960’s. Riding the wave from the burgeoning hippie culture, Kusama began to explore and stage live public performances across New York City. Most of them involved the artist painting groups of dancing young and nude performers under a visual spell of polka dots. Around the same time she also began photographing herself wearing polka dots outfits and standing with her works, an act that at once surrendered herself to her art. In the Venus series, the permanent and self-manifesting power of the Infinity Nets and polka dots can be considered to finally conquest Greek’s timeless icon of love, where the residual image of obliterated performers and the self-obliterated Kusama forever remains.

《維納斯網（R）及無限網維納斯雕像（R）》出自草間彌生1998年創作的《維納斯》系列，共有十三件作品。在本作中，愛神維納斯優美典雅的輪廓自草間的無限網中顯現，雕塑彷彿披上一層保護色，與圖案相同背景融為一體。本作有十個版本在紐約羅伯特・米勒畫廊所舉辦的「草間彌生︰今」展覽中首次展出，今次上拍作品是另外三個版本之一，曾屬日本駒根高原美迎術館收藏。此系列體現了草間彌生自六十年代中期到現時一直採用的幻覺創作手法，薈萃多個經典的草間作品元素；本作的紅黑配色，更是草間創作常用的顏色。

草間彌生的無限網主題具有劃時代意義，是當代藝術語域中最重要、最獨特的視覺符號之一。她本人曾聲稱：「草間的《無限網》強大得足以包圍整個地球、甚至宇宙。過去四十年來，我不斷描繪著這張無限的網，將來亦如是。草間彌生一心不二」（《草間彌生的油畫近作》，東京大田藝廊，1998 年）。無限網最初的面貌可以追溯至1959年的《太平洋》水彩系列。草間用簡單的手腕動作所創作的有機圖案，是她揮去縈繞不散的幻覺、進入現實世界的冥想渠道。畫中連綿不絕的細小弧形，引起藝評家唐納德・賈德的關注，他在1959年撰文：「（草間彌生的《無限網》）的產生既複雜又簡單，基本上是由兩塊相近又大致平行的平面互動而成……在於那些溶於平面的點，亦在於稍微偏離但效果強烈的點」（詹姆斯・羅曼撰，《草間彌生的無限網︰昇華或奇觀？》，卡達斯，2009 年）。藝評家對草間彌生早期的無限網油畫與軟雕塑《堆積》系列的整體評價均屬正面，印証了賈德的觀點。有些藝評家欣賞她推翻當時大行其道的抽象表現主義的雄心，有些則將她筆下重複而單調的美學，與安迪・沃荷的《牛牆紙》與簡約主義聯繫起來。

隨著草間一路發展筆下的無限網主題，無限網的重複結構亦漸漸擴展至鏡子裝置、軟雕塑及著名的行為藝術作品。她將其著名創作符號——一幅由陽具、通心粉和圓點交織而成的「網」不斷複製，覆蓋在現成物品及表演者身上。這種主題的延伸，在《南瓜》和《維納斯》系列上清晰可見。草間曾為此概念的由來作出如是解釋：「藝術家通常不會直接表達自己的複雜心境，但我卻以自身的複雜心境及恐懼為創作主題。光是想到陽具這種又長又醜的東西進入我的身體，我就害怕極了，所以我在作品中大量製造這個形狀。人們不斷進食由機器吐出來的東西如通心粉，就令我恐懼和厭惡，所以我著手創作通心粉雕塑。我要創造這些形狀，重複地創造、不斷地創造，直到將自己完全淹沒在創作過程之中——我稱之為『自我消融』（obliteration）」（《草間彌生》，泰特現代美術館，2012年）。達米恩・赫斯特曾在羅伯特・米勒畫廊所舉辦的草間個展上訪問這位藝術家，讓草間詳述首次體驗「自我消融」的經歷：「小時候，有天我在田野中走過，突然發現山上的天空大放光明，空中浮現了我想繪畫的景象。我看見我正在描繪的紫羅蘭不斷蔓生，覆蓋了門窗，甚至我的身體。當時，我首次領會到自我消融的概念。我立即將這個概念移植到畫布上；這種幻覺，只有精神病患者才能夠體驗得到」（《草間彌生：今》，羅伯特・米勒畫廊，1998年）。

畫中被圓點的汪洋所消融的維納斯雕像，令人想起草間在1960年代創作的嶄新自我消融拼貼作品，以及破格大膽的行為藝術表演。順應著當時新興的嬉皮文化，草間開始探索紐約市的不同地點，籌劃現場公眾表演。在大部份表演中，草間均會在年輕舞者及裸體表演者身上畫上圓點，猶如施下幻術。與此同時，她會穿上圓點服飾，站在作品前方自拍，全心投入於自己的創作成果。在《維納斯》系列中，無限網和圓點永不磨滅的自我體現力量，最終征服了希臘的永恆愛情象徵；被消融的表演者與消融自我的草間彌生亦留下殘影，在後世不斷再生。