Waves 1953

Yayoi Kusama made this painting, "Waves," with acrylic paint on canvas, using one of her signature motifs. Look closely, and you'll see that the entire composition is built from individual dots, a process-intensive technique that speaks to Kusama's obsessive approach. The acrylic paint has a particular smoothness. It builds up a slight relief, like a micro-landscape, and the repetitive mark-making can be understood as a form of labor, echoing the artist's own struggles with mental health. The choice of dots is also significant; simple and infinitely repeatable, they flatten the image into a field, reflecting the serial logic of industrial production. Yet, it is the very handmade quality of those dots, each one slightly imperfect, that gives the work its unique, tactile quality. Kusama’s systematic approach challenges the traditional idea of the artist's touch, asking us to consider the relationship between repetition, labor, and the making of meaning.