Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
Contemporary Drawings Collected by Martina Yamin
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)

A Face

Details
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
A Face
stamped with the artist's signature, titled and dated '1953 YAYOI KUSAMA A Face' (on the reverse); signed, titled again and dated again 'A Face 1953 Yayoi Kusama' (on the backing board)
gouache, watercolor, ink and pastel on paper
11 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (29.5 x 22.5 cm.)
Executed in 1953.
Provenance
Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Private collection, Houston
Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Wellesley, Massachusetts, Wellesley College, Davis Museum, "Don't Look," Contemporary Drawings from Martina Yamin's Collection, September-December 2007, pp. 62 and 63, no. 22 (illustrated).

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Joanna Szymkowiak
Joanna Szymkowiak

Lot Essay

“Unlike her later work, the specificity and uniqueness of the central image in A Face is typical of Kusama’s works on paper of the early 1950s. Delicate skeins of colored lines emerge from a lighter center which glows in the surrounding darkness. Mesmerizing, the delicate patches of color and lines become a face. Cartoon-like lips float below and to the right of the head. The use of space- positioning of the two elements- lips and head- and the abstractedness of the head in relation to the drawing of the lips- intuitive, mysterious, deeply satisfying- is the brilliance of Kusama. This is a particularly fine example of Kusama’s work on paper.” —
P. Cooper quoted in “Don’t Look.” Contemporary Drawings from Martina Yamin's Collection, exh. cat., Davis Museum, Wellesley College, 2007, p. 62.

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