Monumental Yayoi Kusama Dancing Pumpkin sculpture unveiled at NGV

A towering 5-metre-tall bronze pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, weighing more than nine tonnes, was unveiled in NGV International’s Federation Court, marking the countdown to the major summer exhibition Yayoi Kusama, opening 15 December 2024. The newly acquired Dancing Pumpkin, 2020, supported by the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, features eleven ‘dancing’ yellow-and-black polka-dotted legs.

Kusama first became fascinated with pumpkins as a young girl growing up on her family’s seed and plant farm in Matsumoto in regional Japan. The pumpkin motif has become an icon throughout Kusama’s vast career, appearing in drawings, paintings, sculptures and immersive mirror rooms created by the artist across her more than eight-decade-long career. 

Dancing Pumpkin is one of Kusama’s largest and most ambitious imaginings of the pumpkin to date. Taking her iconic motif into new conceptual terrain, the larger-than-life legs appear to twist and hover in the air, suggesting joyous movement. At NGV International, visitors can go underneath the sculpture and experience Kusama’s beloved pumpkin from a new perspective.

The Dancing Pumpkin makes its Australian debut as part of the world-premiere blockbuster exhibition Yayoi Kusama. Only two editions of the work have been shown previously around the world, at the New York Botanical Garden in 2021 and at the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar in 2022–3.

Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV said: ‘We’re delighted to unveil Yayoi Kusama’s breathtaking Dancing Pumpkin sculpture ahead of our major exhibition surveying the artist’s groundbreaking career. The newly acquired work, supported through the generosity of the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, will leave a defining impact on the NGV Collection and will be available for all Victorians to enjoy for many years to come.’

Displayed across the entire ground floor of NGV International, Yayoi Kusama is one of the most comprehensive retrospective exhibitions of the artist’s work ever presented globally. The exhibition traces her entire career – from her childhood to the present-day – through a rich selection of works drawn from the artist’s personal collection and institutions and private collections across Japan and Australia. Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, film and installation, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.

Born in Japan in 1929, Kusama is one of the world’s most important and recognised practitioners working today. She is renowned globally for her singular and idiosyncratic use of pattern, colour and symbols to create immersive, thought-provoking and intensely personal works of art. She has made indelible contributions to key art movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including minimalism, pop art and feminist art.

The Dancing Pumpkin sculpture is now on display at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. FREE entry.

Yayoi Kusama will be on display from 15 December 2024 to 21 April 2025 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Entry fees apply. Tickets and information are available via the NGV website: NGV.MELBOURNE 

Yayoi Kusama’s Dancing Pumpkin 2020 now on display for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Sean Fennessy