Infinity Nets (signed print)

A net you can see yourself in

In 2000 Kusama made a small signed edition for Parkett, the Zurich art magazine whose every issue featured artists who each created an exclusive signed and numbered work. Her contribution, for issue 59, was Infinity Nets: her signature web of tiny looping marks, screenprinted in colors directly onto a mirror.

The format is the point. Kusama's nets are meant to spread without end, and a mirror pulls the viewer and the room into the image. The magazine's own text describes her as transforming the polka dot into an accumulation of found objects, while staying independent of the major movements of her time.

The edition was 70 numbered copies plus 30 proofs, each signed, titled, dated and numbered in silver ink on the back. The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired one in 2001.

Kusama and the nets

Yayoi Kusama was born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan. From about age 10 she experienced hallucinations of flashes of light, auras and dense fields of dots, which became the foundation of her art. She said that if it were not for art, she would have killed herself long ago.

She moved to Seattle in 1957 and to New York in 1958. Her first major New York show, at the Brata Gallery in 1959, featured large white net paintings: the first Infinity Nets. In 1963 she began making her mirrored Infinity rooms.

Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 and in 1977 admitted herself to Seiwa Hospital in Tokyo and made it her permanent home by choice. She represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo in 2017. She died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, at 97, and her studio said she continued to paint until her final days.

The magazine that made art you could own

Parkett was founded in Zurich in the early 1980s with an editorial office in New York, to build a dialogue between artists in Europe and America. Bice Curiger was editor-in-chief throughout its run and Dieter von Graffenried its publisher. It came out three times a year in English and German and reached readers in 40 countries.

Its editions became collectibles in their own right. In 2001, a year after Kusama's edition appeared, the Museum of Modern Art staged 'Parkett: 20 Years of Artists' Collaborations.' The magazine ended its print run with its 100th issue in the summer of 2017.

How to identify it

This is not a print on paper. It is a mirror, about 25 by 21 cm and about 2 mm thick, screenprinted with the net pattern. It was packed in foam, and examples sometimes show impressions from the packaging foam on the mirror surface.

Look for Kusama's signature, the title, the date and the edition number in silver ink on the back. Numbered copies read out of 70; there are also 30 proofs. One example sold in London in 2020 was numbered 65/70, and one sold in Germany in 2023 was numbered 2/70. Some auction lots are sold with the copy of Parkett 59 that accompanied the edition.

Kusama made many other works titled Infinity Nets, from large paintings to other prints. The Parkett mirror edition of 2000 is a distinct object and should be checked against its size, mirror support and edition of 70.

Note that some market listings, and the FLOAT record, describe the work simply as a screenprint of about 25 by 20 cm; the museum, publisher and auction records all specify a screenprint on mirror of about 25 by 21 cm.

In the market

With only 70 numbered copies, the edition appears at auction only occasionally. One market tracker counts nine sales at auction, with five-year hammer prices ranging from £3,340 in February 2024 to £8,455 in April 2022.

In March 2020 copy 65/70 was offered in London with an estimate of £4,000 to £6,000. In October 2023, at a German sale devoted to Parkett's complete editions, copy 2/70 brought €11,220 with fees against an estimate of €4,000. By comparison, Kusama's large Infinity Nets paintings sell in the millions: a 2007 canvas, INFINITY-NETS (QRTWE), sold at auction in New York for $2,045,000.

The numbers

Medium

Multiple of screenprint on mirror

Dimensions

25.3 x 21 cm (MoMA, composition); 25.5 x 21 x 0.2 cm (publisher and auction records)

Edition

70, plus 30 proofs

Published in

Parkett no. 59 (2000)

Printer

Okabe Print Editions Ltd.

Public collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York, Linda Barth Goldstein Fund, 1133.2001

Timeline

1. Mar 22, 1929

   Yayoi Kusama is born in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan.

2. 1958

   Kusama moves to New York after a year in Seattle.

3. 1959

   Kusama's first major New York show, at the Brata Gallery, introduces her white net paintings.

4. 1963

   Kusama begins making her mirrored Infinity rooms.

5. 1973

   Kusama returns to Japan.

6. 1977

   Kusama takes up permanent residence at Seiwa Hospital in Tokyo.

7. 1993

   Kusama represents Japan at the Venice Biennale.

8. 2000

   Infinity Nets, a screenprint on mirror, is published as Kusama's edition for Parkett no. 59, in 70 copies plus 30 proofs.

9. 2001

   The Museum of Modern Art acquires a copy and stages 'Parkett: 20 Years of Artists' Collaborations.'

10. 2017

    Parkett ends its print run with issue 100; the Yayoi Kusama Museum opens in Tokyo.

11. Mar 19, 2020

    Copy 65/70 is offered at auction in London.

12. Apr 2022

    The edition reaches a five-year high hammer price of £8,455.

13. Oct 31, 2023

    Copy 2/70 sells for €11,220 with fees at a German auction of Parkett's complete editions.

14. Feb 2024

    The edition records its five-year low hammer price of £3,340, in New York.

15. Aug 14, 2026

    Kusama dies in Tokyo at 97.

The world in 2000

• Mar 10, 2000

  The Nasdaq Composite reaches an all-time high of 5,048.

• Mar 26, 2000

  Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia.

• Jun 26, 2000

  A draft of the human genome is announced.

• Jul 25, 2000

  An Air France Concorde crashes after takeoff from Paris.

• Sep 15, 2000

  The Summer Olympics open in Sydney.

• Nov 2, 2000

  The first resident crew begins living aboard the International Space Station.

• Dec 12, 2000

  The U.S. Supreme Court halts the Florida recount in Bush v. Gore.

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, Infinity Nets (signed print) is number 82 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 (71 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Kusama's dots and nets began as hallucinations she experienced from around age 10.
• The work is printed on a mirror, so every viewer appears inside the net.
• Kusama chose to live in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital from 1977 onward.
• The Museum of Modern Art acquired a copy in 2001, the year after it was published.
• Every Parkett issue came with exclusive signed and numbered works by its featured artists; the magazine ended with issue 100 in 2017.