C reated in 2011 at the apex of the artist’s global rise to pre-eminence, A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) bursts with whimsical charm, an emblem of the artist’s epochal multi-faceted oeuvre. Vibrating with luminous energy, the anthropomorphic pumpkin presents the legendary artist at the height of her powers - a testament to decades of astonishing dedication to creation, technique, and a singular artistic vision. Executed in the artist’s signature black and yellow colour palette and of large size the artist conducts her pumpkin compositions, A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) exudes a luminous quality, the bright yellow of the pumpkin’s surface cutting through the shadowy blackness of Kusama’s all-over scaled tessellations. An iconic iteration of another of the artist’s instantly recognisable motifs, the net pattern is so dexterously rendered that the canvas hums with rhythmic intensity.

Embodying an iconic, charismatic and highly personal motif, Kusama’s early pumpkins were painted in the traditional Nihonga style of which she was formerly trained. Enrolling at the at Kyoto City Senior High School of Art in the late 1940s, Kusama described that “During my time in Kyoto I diligently painted pumpkins, which in later years would become an important theme in my art” (Kusama Yayoi, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, London 2011, p. 75). Following an explosive rise to fame in New York in the 1960’s, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, beginning to combine her signature all-over Infinity Nets and obliterating polka-dot aesthetic with the motif of the ubiquitous gourd. During the 1980’s, Kusama explored colourful variations of her pumpkin-pattern in two-dimensional paintings, drawings and prints; the distinctive texture of the vegetable’s hardy skin growing ever more deft and accomplished, with the flowing lines of dots advancing and receding rhythmically in a fastidiously precise yet dynamically organic manner.

Towards the latter half of the 1980s, Kusama began exhibiting more frequently around the world, with appreciation for her work culminating in the triumphant invitation to exhibit at the 45^th Venice Biennale in 1993. The first solo woman artist to ever grace the Japanese pavilion, Kusama constructed Mirror Room (Pumpkin) to mark this momentous occasion, consuming a section of the pavilion in an immersive floor-to-ceiling extravaganza of black-on-yellow polka dots. At its centre was a dazzling mirrored room filled with pumpkin sculptures, echoing her seminal 1966 Infinity Mirror Room—Love Forever installation whilst grandly introducing the theme of the pumpkin. The pumpkin thus stands as a symbol of triumph for the artist’s international resurgence.

Pulsating with the energy of Kusama’s technical precision, A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) radiates in its paradigmatic dot pattern which runs down the centre of the rotund pumpkin’s skin. Glistening in its vibrant intensity, the largest of these black dots appear at the most pronounced points of the gourd’s skin as smaller and smaller dots recede into its recesses, allowing Kusama to create the appearance of depth whilst only utilising two colours. Set against the vibrating net pattern, the form of the pumpkin emerges with a dazzlingly visual narrative that recalls the hypnotic illusions of Op Art. The flawlessly executed yellow net of the background is in further correspondence with the Infinity Nets series, which is, along with Kusama’s dots, the cornerstone of the artist’s work. Despite the commonality of Kusama’s most fertile subject, which to the artist beleives does “not do not inspire much respect” (Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, London 2011), the pumpkin becomes a site of meditative contemplation at the hands of Kusama’s adept artistic practise.

Kusama’s extended investigation into cosmic infinity and painterly preoccupation with the push and pull between pictorial and cosmic space can be acutely felt in the present work. The "monotonous, solitary act" (Laura Hoptman, Udo Kultermann and Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama, London 2000, p. 19) of laboriously painting dots has a distinctly meditative quality and overtly physical energy which imbues A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) with an intuitive rhythm. Repetition, she explains, allows for a kind of release: “I make them and make them and keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process. I call this ‘obliteration’ (Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, London 2011, p. 47). An aspect of Kusama’s contemplative imagery is that she “painted boredom, which is more important in life than the effect of sunlight, which the Impressionists painted” (Yayoi Kusama, quoted in Bhupendra Karia Ed. Yayoi Kusama:  A Retrospective, New York 1990, p.18).

Functioning as both an allegory and a form of self-portraiture for the artist, Kusama’s pumpkins are a mysterious yet nurturing subject. Exuding a sense of peace, serenity and vitality, A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) imparts a feeling of abundance and triumph, much like the sense of harvest that the vegetable itself implies. Characterised by her ability to express the dialectic relationship between infinite and finite space, Kusama’s meditative practise of repetition is at once profoundly personal, and universally admired. Weaving together deeply imaginative iconography with a mediative exactitude, Kusama’s pumpkins are a consummate example of the career of one of the twenty-first century’s most iconic artists.

2011年正值草間彌生在國際藝壇聲名漸噪的高峰時期，而在同一年誕生的《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》也湧現出一股奇幻迷人的魅力，在草間彌生呼應時代而且極為多元化的作品中成為經典代表。畫中仿似擁有生命的南瓜散發著若隱若現的能量光芒，展現出這位傳奇藝術家將個人創造力發揮得最淋漓盡致的狀態——印證她數十年來一直以無比驚人的毅力堅持創作，不斷磨練技法來成就她獨特的藝術觀點。《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》用上了草間彌生最經典的黃、黑色彩組合，在她創作過的南瓜畫作中也擁有最大的尺寸，作品散發出如同夜光的質感，充滿草間彌生特色的圓點圖案密密麻麻地鋪滿整個南瓜表面，在一大片幽暗的黑色中，鮮亮的明黃色乍現眼前。作品同樣展現了另一個草間彌生的代表元素：網紋圖案，其畫功精細而緊密有序，仿佛有種視覺上的律動節奏自畫布上顯現。

草間彌生的南瓜是一個極具個人色彩和獨特魅力的經典主題，而她早期的南瓜作品都是以過往修習的傳統日本畫風格繪畫。在1940 年代後期，草間彌生入讀京都市立美術工藝學校，她憶述：「在京都生活期間，我一直埋頭畫南瓜，後來南瓜就成為我作品中的重要主題之一」（草間彌生，《無限的網：草間彌生自傳》，拉夫・麥卡錫英譯，泰特出版社，2011年，頁75）。草間彌生在1960 年代於紐約一舉成名，隨後在1975年回到日本，回國後，她開始將其特色密鋪圖案「無限的網」和淹沒視覺的圓點美學結合，為平平無奇的南瓜添上圖案。1980年代期間，草間彌生透過平面繪畫、素描和版畫創作出各種不同色彩的南瓜圖案；南瓜皮上的獨特紋理越來越細緻入微，繪畫技巧越顯純熟，而在精準細密而生動自然的筆功下，圓點匯聚成漣漪般的線條，收放自如，極具韻律。

進入1980年代後半期，草間彌生愈來愈常在世界各地展出，其作品備受推崇，最終她在1993年揚威海外，獲邀前往第 45 屆威尼斯雙年展參展，成為史上首位在日本館展出的女性兼個人藝術家。草間彌生建造了《鏡室（南瓜）》來紀念這個重要時刻，讓部分展區從地板到天花板完全被無邊無際的黃底黑色圓點包圍。作品的中央位置設有一間令人目眩神迷的鏡面房間，呼應她在1966年的重要鉅作《無限鏡屋：無盡的愛》藝術裝置，房間裡放滿南瓜雕塑，代表著南瓜主題正式出現，南瓜也因此成為草間彌生成功在全球再展鋒芒的象徵。

草間彌生在《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》施以細膩入微的畫技，畫作在其典型的圓點圖案中透出光芒，展現律動的能量。圓點圖案由中心沿著南瓜飽滿的表面往外變小，南瓜在充滿魔力的漸變圖案中閃閃發亮，最大的黑色圓點在南瓜皮最顯眼的位置上出現，然後圓點越變越小，直到消融在南瓜的坑紋位置；因此僅憑兩種顏色，草間彌生就創造出具視覺深度的畫面。在似乎扭曲顫動的網紋圖案映襯下，南瓜的形狀在迷幻的視覺表現下浮現，效果猶如視幻藝術中令人深陷其中的視錯影像。而繪製得完美無瑕的黃色網紋背景進一步呼應《無限的網》系列，這個系列與圓點一樣都是草間彌生作品的根本基礎。南瓜與網紋一樣都是她碩果累累的主題，然而草間彌生認為它們「沒有得到很大的重視」（草間彌生，引述自《無限的網：草間彌生自傳》，拉爾夫・麥卡錫英譯，倫敦，2011年），儘管如此，這也無阻草間彌生以精湛的藝術造詣讓南瓜成為感悟哲理的場所。

在《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》中，可以很切實地感受到草間彌生的探索觸及宇宙的無限性，而她在繪畫時也十分關注畫作空間和宇宙空間之間的拉扯。重複畫圓點這種「單調無趣的孤僻行為」（蘿拉・霍普特曼、伍德・庫特曼及草間彌生，《草間彌生》，倫敦， 2000 年，頁19）耗時費工，卻顯然蘊含深刻的思想和滿載來自繪畫動作的能量，後者令整幅 《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》都充滿直覺式的律動節奏。重複可以帶來某種釋放，她解釋：「我畫它們，重複又重複地畫，一直畫到我完全淹沒在過程之中，我稱之為『消融』」（草間彌生，《無限的網：草間彌生自傳》， 拉爾夫・麥卡錫英譯，倫敦，2011年，頁47 ）。而在草間彌生充滿感悟的意象中有一重要面向：她「繪畫的是無聊，在生命中，無聊比起印象派捕捉的日光變化更為重要」（草間彌生，錄於布彭德拉・卡里亞編，《草間彌生：藝術回顧》，紐約，1990年，頁18）。

草間彌生的南瓜是帶神秘感而又充滿藝術養份的主題，它們既是比喻的載體，同時也是她某種形式下的自畫像。《A-Pumpkin [BAGN8]》散發出平和、安寧和活潑的感覺，代表著豐盛和勝利，如同南瓜本身所蘊含的豐收意義。草間彌生重複繪畫圖案有著極為私密的緣由，卻又深得普羅大眾欣賞，她藉著重複手法深刻地表達出有限空間與無限空間互相依存的關係，發人深思。草間彌生的南瓜完美見證了她的藝術生涯，展現這位廿一世紀藝壇巨匠如何借意味深長的精細圖案，編織出極富想像力的象徵圖像。