Yayoi Kusama, The Pacific Ocean, 1959. Estimate $2,000,000–3,000,000.
Diagnosed with obsessional neurosis, Kusama struggled with hallucinatory visions of infinitely oscillating, kaleidoscopic patterns throughout her childhood in Japan. It was not until her arrival in the United States, however, that Kusama found the means of channeling her psychosomatic visions and tendencies into the paintings that would form the beginning of the iconic Infinity Nets series. Working with a focus both obsessive and meditative, Kusama would move her brush across the canvas with precise, minute flicks of the wrist, carefully weaving the complex skein of overlapping loops to create an undulating pattern that calls to mind the simultaneously mesmerizing and terrifying glimpse of infinity one experiences before a seemingly endless expanse of shimmering water. A stirring testament to Yayoi Kusama’s captivating mastery of spatial abstraction, The Pacific Ocean is unquestionably a pivotal exemplar of the artist’s revered oeuvre, one of the first red Infinity Nets - if not the very first. Further testifying to the significance of the present work, The Pacific Ocean was acquired by Beatrice Perry, Kusama’s first and most formative art dealer, directly following its execution.
