OTA Fine Arts, Tokyo
Private Collection, Geneva
Sotheby's, London, February 5, 2009, lot 8
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is bright, fresh and clean. There is extremely light evidence of wear and handling to the edges and the sides are taped. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Recently honored with retrospectives in London, Paris, and New York, Yayoi Kusama’s aesthetic is recognized and celebrated with great enthusiasm. A longtime proponent of the polka dot and plagued by hallucinations since childhood, Kusama has super-sized Burtonesque pumpkin patches to navigate and rigged rooms with shallow pools of water, mirrors, and twinkling lights inviting us to explore her most imaginative environments. Her ability to occupy the viewer’s senses through sculpture, installations, and painting has always proposed and challenged concepts of infinity. Seeing her talents as limitless, her repetitive practice “produces a fantastic narrative that stars herself, as the object and subject, author and protagonist, artist and artwork." (Exh. Cat. New York, Museum of Modern Art, Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968, 1998, p. 70)

Like❀ a child searching for figures in the clouds, viewers follow the easy arcs of Kusama’s infinity net paintings, under the spell of repetition, looking for more. Lured into discovering co🎉nstellations within the curving links on her canvases, paint builds up across the surface creating shapes and forms, leading the eye as it travels over the rolling rhythms of white paint.

The soft, monochromatic composition of White Nets from 2007 is the perfect scalein which to become engulfed in Kusama’s web. Viewed fr𒈔om a distance the painting resembles an eyelet pattern or even lace but as the tranquil gestures become more apparent and the mesmerizing pattern gives way to the illusion of space, and viewers get lost in the intertwined white strokes – like waves of suds or bubbles. The forms loop fluidly🎃 in unending swirls across the picture plane consuming the viewers and their perception of time and space.