FLOAT 100 · Art · No. 65
Flowers, Kusama 34
As a child Yayoi Kusama saw violets talking to each other; in 1984, living by choice in a psychiatric hospital and largely overlooked by the art world, she turned flowers into a bright screenprint in an edition of only 100 that almost never comes to auction.
- Year
- 1984
- Maker
- Yayoi Kusama
- By price in art
- 65 of 100
- Artist
- Yayoi Kusama (born 1929, Matsumoto, Japan)
- Title
- Flowers (catalogued as Kusama 34; Abe 34 in one database)
- Date
- 1984
- Medium
- Screenprint in colors
- Size
- Image about 53 x 45.5 cm; one source lists 61 x 53 cm
- Edition
- 100, signed
- Auction appearances
- Rare: one tracker records a single sale, in Japan in April 2024; a later sale in Seoul in February 2026 is also listed
Flowers that talked
Yayoi Kusama was born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, in Japan's Nagano prefecture, into a merchant family that ran a plant nursery and seed farm. From about the age of 10 she experienced vivid hallucinations: flashes of light, auras, fields of dots, and flowers that spoke to her.
She later described one of them: finding herself trembling with fear among hundreds of violets that had appeared out of nowhere and were chatting among themselves like people. Flowers became, for Kusama, both a source of terror and a lifelong subject. She calls the process of turning such visions into art self-obliteration: the dissolving of the self into endless repeating pattern.
Her flower prints are gentler than her hallucinations. One commentator notes that, in print, Kusama's flowers are celebratory rather than otherworldly, colored in reds, greens and yellows and set against her signature nets and dots.
Kusama in 1984
The Kusama of 1984 was not the global star of today. After studying painting in Kyoto, she moved to the United States in 1957 and to New York in 1958, where she became part of the avant-garde and pop art scene. She returned to Japan in 1973. In 1977, after depression and suicide attempts, she admitted herself to Seiwa Hospital, where she has lived ever since, working in a studio nearby.
From there she turned to writing as well as art, publishing novels including Manhattan Suicide Addict (1978) and The Hustler's Grotto of Christopher Street (1983). Flowers (Kusama 34) belongs to this quiet period, years before her international revival.
The revival was still years away. A 1989 retrospective at the Center for International Contemporary Arts in New York renewed interest in her work, and in 1993 she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with a mirrored room.
The print
Kusama has made many prints titled Flowers, which is why collectors and auction catalogues identify this one by its catalogue number, Kusama 34 (listed as Abe 34 in one auction database). In her prints, Kusama often colors every bloom in a vase the same way, stripping the flowers of their usual symbolism, and sets them against her nets and dots.
The edition is 100. A sheet offered for sale from Hong Kong, number 12/100, is described as hand-signed by the artist at lower right. Measurements vary between sources: one auction database and one dealer listing give about 53 by 45.5 cm, while a print-market tracker lists 61 by 53 cm, likely a difference between image and sheet.
Kusama prints of this period were made with Japanese publishers and specialist printers. One authentication guide warns that counterfeit Kusama prints and even forged certificates are widespread, and notes that the Yayoi Kusama Foundation will check whether an image and registration number match its records but does not issue certificates. A Kusama print without clear publisher or printer information deserves closer scrutiny.
A scarce sheet
One tracker calls Kusama's Flowers prints one of the most actively traded series in her market. Across the whole Flowers group, one tracker counted about £147,500 in sales over 12 months, with individual prices ranging from £474 to £37,465.
Kusama 34 itself rarely appears. The same tracker records one auction sale, in Japan in April 2024, and separately lists a sale at auction in Seoul on February 26, 2026, with a hammer price of £21,000. An auction database records another impression, under the reference Abe 34, sold in Japan for ¥929,600 against a ¥400,000-600,000 estimate, without a date shown. None of these sources gives a dated U.S. dollar figure for a sale, so no price is listed here.
The numbers
- Medium
- Screenprint in colors
- Dimensions
- About 53 x 45.5 cm (20.8 x 17.9 in); one source gives 61 x 53 cm
- Edition size
- 100
- Catalogue number
- Kusama 34; listed as Abe 34 in one auction database
- Signature
- Hand-signed at lower right (per one listing)
Timeline
Yayoi Kusama is born in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan.
Around age 10, Kusama begins to experience hallucinations of dots, nets and talking flowers.
Kusama moves to New York after a year in Seattle.
Kusama returns to Japan.
She admits herself to Seiwa Hospital and works from a studio nearby.
Publishes the novel The Hustler's Grotto of Christopher Street.
Flowers (Kusama 34) is published as a screenprint in an edition of 100.
A New York retrospective revives international interest in Kusama.
Kusama represents Japan at the Venice Biennale.
An impression sells at auction in Japan, its first recorded sale per one tracker.
An impression is listed as sold in Seoul with a £21,000 hammer price.
The world in 1984
Apple launches the Macintosh personal computer.
The Winter Olympics open in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
The Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.
An IRA bomb at a Brighton hotel targets Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, killing five people.
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two of her bodyguards.
Ronald Reagan is reelected, carrying 49 states.
A gas leak at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills thousands.
Price record
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Flowers, Kusama 34 is number 65 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (65 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Kusama's family business was a plant nursery and seed farm, so she grew up surrounded by the flowers that later haunted her.
- She has lived in a psychiatric hospital by her own choice since 1977, walking to a nearby studio to work.
- The Yayoi Kusama Foundation will check a print's registration number but does not issue certificates of authenticity.
- The first auction sale of this print recorded by one tracker came in 2024, 40 years after it was made.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026