Rating and value of paintings, drawings and sculptures by Yayoi Kusama

If you own a work by or based on the artist Yayoi Kusama and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will guide you.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with an accurate estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, should you wish to sell your work, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

Artist's rating and value

Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama won over the art critics, dealers and collectors of her day. Since then, the artist's works have made a name for themselves on the auction market.

From the 2010s onwards, her stock has been on the rise, particularly for her oils on canvas and sculptures.

As a result, the price at which Yayoi Kusama's works sell ranges from €30 to €8,390,600. An oil on canvas, Untitled (Nets) went for €8,390,600, while it was estimated at between €4,767,400 and €6,674,360.

Order of value ranging from the most basic to the most prestigious

The artist's work and style

Yayoi Kusama's work is conceptual and rooted in the movements of Pop Art, Minimalism, Surrealism, Art Brut and Abstract Expressionism. The recurring motifs she uses are dots and polka dots, which have become her visual signature.

She uses infinite networks or meshes, patterns of repetitive, intertwined lines that extend across the entire surface. Her compositions are characterized by accumulation and repetition, with motifs repeated ad infinitum, often on large surfaces or immersive installations.

The scale varies from microscopic detail to the total spatial environment covered in patterns. There is an immersion and obliteration of the subject, and her installations (mirrors, lighting, reflective surfaces) aim to make the viewer disappear from the work.

The dimensions are hybrid, with simultaneous use of painting, sculpture, installation, performance and multiple modes of expression. She works in a variety of media, including paint (acrylic, oil, gouache), which she applies in small dots or repetitive strokes on canvas or paper.

She also produces silkscreens and etchings to reproduce her motifs more widely, but also expresses herself through performances and happenings, like Niki de Saint Phalle. In this context, she uses the body as an artistic medium.

Yayoi Kusama also accumulates objects, covering furniture, everyday objects and sculptures with her motifs, transforming the object into an extension of the canvas. She systematically overlays any support (walls, floors, ceilings) that is likely to become a surface for her motifs.

She uses obsessive repetition as a method, with a ritualized, almost meditative process, where the gesture is repeated until visual saturation.

Yayoi Kusama's life    

Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Her parents owned a plant nursery and seed farm. She spent her childhood drawing, a childhood in which visual hallucinations had already been reported. Kusama soon came up against the authority of her mother, who confiscated her drawings.

She trained in traditional Japanese painting (nihonga) in Kyoto. In 1957, she moved to New York to join the Western avant-garde. Her New York period, which mainly comprises the 1960s, saw the development of " Infinity Nets " motifs, as well as involvement in happenings, performances and installations, reflecting a certain artistic activism.

Returning to Japan in 1973, she faced a mixed reception in the artistic circles of the time. In 1977, she voluntarily admitted herself to hospital, choosing to live in a Tokyo psychiatric institution, while continuing her artistic activity in a nearby studio.

Recognition came rather late, and she exhibited from the 1980s - 1990s, subsequently gaining access to major retrospectives at MoMA and the Tate, among others. Yayoi Kusama has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale, honors in Japan and the acquisition of her works in permanent collections worldwide.

She has produced paintings, installations and performances throughout her life, as well as collaborations with players in fashion and design.

The success of twentieth-century female artists at auction

Since 2020, auction sales devoted to female artists have enjoyed steady growth, based on an active rereading of the market, a critical reappraisal of works, a new structuring of demand.

The figures, published by the leading auction houses, confirm this dynamic: Yayoi Kusama, Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, Georgia O'Keeffe, Cecily Brown are reaching heights rarely equaled until now, not for conjunctural reasons, but because their works are now part of a broader reading of the history of modern and contemporary art.

The results do not merely reflect a phenomenon of belated correction, they translate a transformation of the gaze, a redefinition of value.

The multiplication of thematic sales organized by Sotheby's or Christie's, exclusively dedicated to women artists, is another indication: the market is not adjusting, it is reconfiguring. Works are extracted from the margins, presented in museum contexts, published, analyzed, integrated into mainstream narratives.

This recognition is neither marginal nor temporary; it alters established hierarchies. It imposes a new cartography, in which works by Tanning, Saint Phalle, Hepworth or Leonor Fini find their place, not as objects of rehabilitation, but as constitutive structures of another history.

The evolution is slow but steady: it does not correct an omission, it transforms the visible foundations of artistic recognition.

Market segmentation and artist rating 

The segments and media valued in Yayoi Kusama's work are paintings (Infinity Nets) and historical works, which form a high-end segment. Sculptures and objects, notably pumpkins, form part of the premium segment of the contemporary art market.

Works on paper, editions, serigraphs and engravings constitute an accessible but well-calibrated segment. Immersive installations, on the other hand, belong to an institutional segment that is rarely found on the private market, which is more museum-oriented.

Yayoi Kusama collectors include museums and institutions, contemporary collectors and Asian patrons, who are taking an increasingly important share of the market. Demand dynamics are strong in Asia.

Editions and prints offer moderate entry points for collectors, fuelling market liquidity. Historical works (1050 - 1960) and major pieces (Infinity Nets, rare pumpkin series) serve as a reference for quotations.

His signature

Not all Yayoi Kusama's works are signed, and copies exist.

An example of her signature can be seen in the drawing below.

Expertise your property

If you own a work by Yayoi Kusama, don't hesitate to request a free appraisal by filling in our online form.

A member of our team of experts and certified auctioneers will contact you to provide an estimate of the market value of your work.

If you are considering selling your work, our specialists will also guide you through the various alternatives available to obtain the best possible price, taking into account market trends and the specific features of each object.