Pumpkin 2000 (red), Kusama 299

A pumpkin that talked back

Kusama was born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano, into a family of merchants who ran a plant nursery and seed farm. She began drawing pumpkins in elementary school. From about the age of ten she had hallucinations of dots, flowers, pumpkins and patterned fabrics that seemed to come to life, speak to her and envelop her, an experience she later called self-obliteration. One sale catalog for this print recounts her memory of a pumpkin that spoke to her from its vine.

She painted her first pumpkin in 1946, in the traditional Japanese Nihonga style. Her reason, in her own words: 'Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood. They speak to me of the joy of living. They are humble and amusing at the same time, and I have and always will celebrate them in my art.'

The motif came back to her again and again. At the 1993 Venice Biennale, where she represented Japan, she filled a mirrored room with small pumpkin sculptures. In 1994 a yellow pumpkin covered in black spots, 2.5 meters wide, went up on a pier on Naoshima island and became iconic as her fame grew; a typhoon destroyed it in 2021, and it was reinstalled in 2022. By the time of this print the pumpkin had become, as one encyclopedia puts it, a kind of alter ego or self-portrait.

From Matsumoto to New York and back

Kusama left Japan in 1957, frustrated with a society she called 'too small, too servile, too feudalistic, and too scornful of women.' After a year in Seattle she arrived in New York in 1958, where she made her Infinity Net paintings and soft sculptures and staged body-painting happenings. At the 1966 Venice Biennale she laid out 1,500 mirrored balls on a lawn as Narcissus Garden and, dressed in a gold kimono, sold them for 1,200 lire, about $2, apiece until the organizers stopped her.

She returned to Japan in 1973. In 1977 she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and lived there, by choice, for the rest of her life, being driven each morning to a studio nearby. 'If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago,' she said. She exhibited her first prints in 1979, and printmaking became a steady part of her practice, full of pumpkins, dresses, grapes, flowers and butterflies built from dots and nets.

Kusama died in a Tokyo hospital on August 14, 2026, at 97; her death was announced in late August. Her museum said she kept painting until her final days. By then a single painting of hers, Untitled (Nets) of 1959, had sold for $10.5 million.

London, 2000

From January 26 to March 19, 2000, the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens staged the first major survey of Kusama's work in Britain. It included paintings, collages, watercolors, sculptures and films exploring her obsession with dots, nets, food and sex. The centerpiece was a re-creation of her 1966 environment Driving Image, with mannequins and furniture covered in her patterns and set on a bed of broken macaroni; there were also a life-size rowboat and a room-size snake covered in stuffed protrusions, and a mirrored peep show.

The Serpentine also published this screenprint in an edition of 100. It was a good year to be showing art in London. The Tate Modern opened to the public on May 12, 2000, Ken Livingstone had become the city's first directly elected mayor eight days earlier, and the Millennium Bridge opened on June 10 and promptly closed again because it swayed.

Dots, nets and a red ground

Pumpkin 2000 (Red) is printed in only two colors, black and red. The pumpkin sits on a field of tessellating triangles that a sale catalog reads as Kusama's infinity nets, while the dots on the pumpkin are arranged in vertical segments that seem to swell and shrink as you look. The catalog called the result a print that combines all three of her signature motifs: dots, nets and the pumpkin itself.

Catalogs agree on how to identify it. The image measures 30 by 35 cm on a sheet of about 48 by 64 cm, the sheet is Colorplan wove paper, and each impression is signed, titled, dated and numbered out of 100 in pencil; ten artist's proofs were also made. The publisher line reads Serpentine Gallery, London, and the print was made in the United Kingdom. The catalogue raisonne number is Kusama 299.

The exact title matters. Kusama returned to the pumpkin across many dates, colorways, sizes and edition structures, and a buyer's guide warns that a description such as 'yellow Pumpkin' is not specific enough. This print has a yellow companion, Pumpkin 2000 (Yellow), and the same guide notes that posters and licensed merchandise can resemble collectible prints in online listings; check the edition number, the paper size and the pencil signature against the catalog.

From £12,500 to a deep market

Pumpkin 2000 (Red) first appeared at auction in April 2017, and one tracker counts 18 public sales since then, so its path is easy to follow. On June 26, 2018, impression 25/100 sold at auction in London for £12,500 including premium. On March 18, 2020, impression 64/100 sold in London for £32,500 against an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000.

The same tracker records a high hammer of £42,840 in January 2022 and a low of £20,000 in September 2020 over five years. Impression 18/100, from a private British collection, sold for £38,700 against a £20,000 to £30,000 estimate, and impressions 35/100, 47/100 and 87/100 have also been offered at auction with estimates between £15,000 and £35,000.

In June 2026 another impression sold at auction in London for a hammer of $40,000, or $50,000 with the buyer's premium, by the tracker's conversion. After Kusama's death in August 2026, impression 51/100 was listed for an upcoming sale with an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000, the catalog now giving her dates as 1929-2026.

Back in Kensington Gardens

Kusama returned to the same London park 24 years later. From July 9 to November 3, 2024, the Serpentine and the Royal Parks showed her bronze Pumpkin (2024) by the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. At 6 meters tall and 5.5 meters across, it was her tallest bronze pumpkin to date, and the gallery noted that the commission marked her return to the place of her first British retrospective in 2000.

The small red print from that first show is the same idea at a size that fits on a wall: one pumpkin, covered in dots, resting on a net that never ends.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprint in red and black on Colorplan wove paper

Dimensions

Image 30 x 35 cm (11 3/4 x 13 3/4 in); sheet 48.2 x 64.1 cm (18 7/8 x 25 1/4 in)

Catalogue raisonne

Kusama 299

Edition

100 plus 10 artist's proofs

Publisher

Serpentine Gallery, London, 2000

Timeline

1. Mar 22, 1929

   Yayoi Kusama is born in Matsumoto, Nagano, into a family that runs a plant nursery and seed farm.

2. 1946

   Kusama paints her first pumpkin, in the Nihonga style.

3. 1957

   Kusama leaves Japan for Seattle; she reaches New York in 1958.

4. 1966

   At the Venice Biennale she sells mirrored balls from Narcissus Garden for about $2 each.

5. 1973

   Kusama returns to Japan.

6. 1977

   She takes up permanent residence in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, working in a studio nearby.

7. 1979

   Kusama exhibits her first prints.

8. 1993

   Kusama represents Japan at the Venice Biennale with a mirrored room of pumpkins.

9. 1994

   Her yellow dotted Pumpkin is installed on a pier on Naoshima.

10. Jan 26, 2000

    The Serpentine Gallery opens the first major survey of Kusama's work in Britain, running to March 19.

11. 2000

    Pumpkin 2000 (Red) is published by the Serpentine Gallery in an edition of 100 plus 10 proofs.

12. Apr 2017

    The print makes its first recorded auction appearance.

13. Jun 26, 2018

    Impression 25/100 sells at auction in London for £12,500 including premium.

14. Mar 18, 2020

    Impression 64/100 sells at auction in London for £32,500.

15. Jan 2022

    A hammer of £42,840 sets the five-year high recorded by one tracker.

16. Jul 9, 2024

    Kusama's 6-meter bronze Pumpkin goes on view in Kensington Gardens.

17. Jun 2026

    An impression sells at auction in London for $50,000 with premium, by a tracker's conversion.

18. Aug 14, 2026

    Yayoi Kusama dies in Tokyo at 97.

The world in 2000

• Jan 1, 2000

  The Millennium Dome opens in London.

• May 4, 2000

  Ken Livingstone is elected the first Mayor of London.

• May 12, 2000

  The Tate Modern opens to the public.

• Jun 10, 2000

  London's Millennium Bridge opens and then closes because it sways.

• Sep 8, 2000

  Fuel protests block British oil refineries and empty petrol stations.

• Sep 15, 2000

  The Sydney Olympics open.

• Dec 31, 2000

  The Millennium Dome closes after one year.

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, Pumpkin 2000 (red), Kusama 299 is number 56 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 (53 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Kusama's family ran a plant nursery and seed farm, and she was drawing pumpkins in elementary school.
• At the 1966 Venice Biennale she sold mirrored balls to visitors for about $2 each until organizers made her stop.
• Kusama lived in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital by choice from 1977 until her death, going to her studio nearby each day.
• The Serpentine's 2000 show recreated a 1966 room of mannequins and furniture set on a bed of broken macaroni.
• The print sold for £12,500 in 2018; less than two years later another impression brought £32,500.
• Kusama's 2024 bronze pumpkin in Kensington Gardens stood 6 meters tall, her tallest bronze pumpkin to date.