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No. I.Z

Painting featuring a red background and tiny, tightly spaced black shapes, creating an undulating, netlike pattern that fills the entire canvas.

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  • Painting featuring a red background and tiny, tightly spaced black shapes, creating an undulating, netlike pattern that fills the entire canvas.

Date:

1960

Artist:

Yayoi Kusama
Japanese, born 1929

About this artwork

Yayoi Kusama began making art during childhood as a vehicle for both escape and therapy. At the age of 12, she sketched an elaborate, disturbing portrait of her mother based on hallucinations of repeated, encompassing patterns of dots and colors. These visions would continue to influence her art and appear in her performances, paintings, sculptures, and environments throughout her career. In 1957 Kusama moved from Japan to New York and began her “infinity net” paintings, filling canvases with minimal, meditative compositions of netlike patterns. While these patterns appear to be devoid of an overtly expressive quality, the artist’s labor-intensive technique of mark making reflects her highly emotive intent and obsessive concern with process. She has lived and worked in Japan, at times under unorthodox conditions, since 1973.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Yayoi Kusama

Title

No. I.Z

Place

Japan (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1960

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

79.7 × 64.8 cm (31 3/8 × 25 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior acquisitions of Grant Pick and Joseph Winterbotham

Reference Number

1998.18

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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