Why Yayoi Kusama Is Favoured by Chinese Collectors?
为什么草间弥生受到中国藏家的青睐?
24/01/2026
Hector Chan
A few days ago, while taking a walk through the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, I came across something unexpected: a towering sculpture covered in bright colours and polka dots. At first glance it looked unmistakably like a work by Yayoi Kusama. Yet I hesitated. Surely this could not actually be a real Kusama sculpture standing in the middle of a commercial plaza. Kusama’s monumental outdoor works are relatively rare, and encountering one here seemed improbable.
Curious, I walked closer. The sculpture rose several meters above the plaza, its bulbous petals painted in Kusama’s unmistakable visual language of saturated colour and repeated dots. The longer I looked, the more convincing it became. After doing some research, I discovered that my surprise was justified. The work, titled Flowers That Bloom in Guangzhou, was installed in 2016 at IGC Art Park and is widely regarded as the artist’s first specially commissioned outdoor sculpture in mainland China.
Encounters like this are perhaps less surprising than they initially appear. When speaking with Chinese collectors and art enthusiasts, Kusama’s name surfaces frequently. Her work has become almost universally recognizable. Part of this popularity may stem from the visual clarity of her art: the polka dots, pumpkins, and immersive mirror rooms are instantly identifiable. Another part may lie in the compelling narrative of Kusama’s life itself—her childhood hallucinations, decades of artistic persistence, and her voluntary residence in a psychiatric hospital while continuing to produce art with extraordinary discipline
前两天，我在广州散步时，突然看见了一件出乎意料的作品：一座巨大的雕塑，上面布满鲜艳的颜色和波点。第一眼看去，它几乎毫无疑问地像是草间弥生的作品。但我还是有些犹豫——这样的雕塑真的会是草间弥生的吗？在一座商业广场中间，突然出现一件如此醒目的作品，似乎有些不可思议。毕竟，草间弥生的大型户外雕塑并不常见。
出于好奇，我走近仔细看了看。雕塑高高地立在广场中央，花瓣般的结构被涂上鲜艳的色彩和密集的圆点，这是草间弥生极具辨识度的视觉语言。越看越觉得熟悉。后来查了一些资料，我才发现自己的惊讶并非没有理由：这件作品名为《在广州盛开的花》，2016年落成于IGC天汇广场艺术公园，被认为是草间弥生在中国大陆首件专门委托创作的户外公共雕塑。
其实，这样的相遇或许并没有最初看起来那么偶然。和中国的收藏家以及艺术爱好者聊天时，“草间弥生”这个名字常常会被提到。她的作品几乎已经成为一种全球化的视觉符号。她的波点、南瓜以及沉浸式的镜屋装置都极其容易辨认。与此同时，她的人生经历本身也具有某种打动人的力量——童年的幻觉体验、数十年持续不断的创作，以及长期自愿居住在精神病院却仍然保持高度创作纪律的艺术家形象。
Kusama’s artistic language emerged from deeply personal experiences. Since childhood, she has described suffering from hallucinations in which patterns and dots seemed to spread endlessly across surfaces and objects. Rather than resisting these visions, she transformed them into artistic material. Her repetitive motifs—nets, dots, mirrors, and accumulations—became ways of expressing what she calls “self-obliteration,” the dissolution of the individual into an infinite universe.
By the late 1950s, Kusama had moved to New York, where she became part of the city’s avant-garde art scene. Her monumental Infinity Net paintings, composed of thousands of repeated brushstrokes, pushed painting toward obsessive labour and near-hypnotic repetition. At the same time, she organized experimental happenings and anti-war performances during the 1960s, placing herself in dialogue with artists such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Though long overshadowed by some of her contemporaries, Kusama eventually emerged as one of the most recognizable figures in postwar contemporary art.
Naturally, encountering her work in Guangzhou made me curious about Kusama’s relationship with China. Yet when searching online, the first page of results does not lead to exhibitions or museum installations, but rather to controversy. In 2018, Kusama’s studio filed legal action against several Chinese companies accused of producing unauthorized replicas of her sculptures. The lawsuit attracted international attention and revealed something important: Kusama’s work had become so popular in China that imitation itself had become a widespread phenomenon.
草间弥生的艺术语言，正是从这些极为个人化的经验中诞生的。她曾多次描述自己从童年起便会产生幻觉：图案和圆点仿佛会不断蔓延，覆盖周围的物体和空间。她并没有试图逃避这些视觉经验，而是将它们转化为创作的素材。重复出现的网状图案、波点、镜面空间以及各种堆积式的形态，逐渐形成了她所谓的“自我消融”（self-obliteration）的概念——个体在无限的宇宙之中逐渐消解。
1950年代末，草间弥生移居纽约，并迅速进入当时活跃的前卫艺术圈。她的大型《无限网》（Infinity Nets）绘画由成千上万次重复的笔触组成，将绘画推向一种近乎冥想与执念的劳动过程。与此同时，她在1960年代组织了多场先锋“行为事件”（Happenings）以及反战表演，使自己与安迪·沃霍尔（Andy Warhol）、克莱斯·奥尔登堡（Claes Oldenburg）等艺术家形成复杂的对话关系。虽然在很长一段时间里，她的地位被一些同时代艺术家所掩盖，但最终草间弥生逐渐成为战后当代艺术中最具辨识度的人物之一。
正因为在广州偶然遇见她的作品，我开始好奇草间弥生与中国之间的关系。然而当我在网上搜索时，第一页的结果并不是展览或艺术史讨论，而是一场争议。2018年，草间弥生工作室曾对多家中国公司提起诉讼，指控其制作未经授权的雕塑复制品。这起案件一度引起国际媒体的关注，同时也揭示了一个事实：草间弥生在中国的影响力已经大到，以至于模仿和仿制都成为一个问题。
Behind this popularity lies a deeper cultural resonance. Although Kusama is a Japanese artist whose career developed largely in the United States and Europe, her work touches ideas that resonate strongly with Chinese audiences. Her visual language is built on repetition and infinity: dots spreading endlessly across surfaces, mirrored spaces multiplying reflections into seemingly infinite environments, and nets extending beyond the boundaries of the canvas.
These themes echo philosophical ideas familiar in East Asian thought. Concepts of endless cycles and boundless space appear in both Buddhist cosmology and Daoist philosophy. While Kusama developed her work within the context of postwar avant-garde experimentation, the visual logic she created often feels intuitively compatible with these broader traditions.
Another reason for Kusama’s popularity lies in the accessibility of her imagery. Contemporary art can sometimes feel conceptually distant to new collectors, but Kusama’s visual language is immediately legible. A pumpkin covered in dots or a mirrored room filled with lights requires little explanation to generate fascination. This clarity allows her work to travel easily across cultural contexts.
这种流行背后，其实有着更深层的文化原因。虽然草间弥生是日本艺术家，并且她的重要创作阶段主要发生在美国和欧洲，但她的作品却与中国观众产生了某种微妙的共鸣。她的艺术语言建立在“重复”和“无限”之上：无穷无尽扩散的波点、镜面空间中不断复制的影像，以及似乎延伸到画面之外的网状结构。
这些视觉逻辑，与东亚文化中的一些哲学观念不谋而合。在佛教宇宙观和道家思想中，都存在关于循环、无限和无边空间的观念。虽然草间弥生的创作源自战后西方前卫艺术语境，但她所创造出的视觉世界，却常常能够与这些思想产生某种直觉性的呼应。
除此之外，草间弥生的作品还有一个重要特点：极高的可识别性。许多当代艺术作品在概念上较为复杂，对新进入市场的收藏者而言可能显得距离较远。而草间弥生的视觉语言却非常直接——一个布满波点的南瓜，或者一个充满灯光的镜屋空间，不需要太多解释就能引发兴趣。这种清晰而强烈的视觉特征，使她的作品能够轻松跨越不同文化语境。
Yayoi Kusama's Untitled (Nets) (1959) sold for $10.5m at Phillips New York on May 18, 2022. The oil on canvas work had been traded 4 times in the past.
草间弥生的《无题（网）》（1959 年）于 2022 年 5 月 18 日在纽约菲利普斯拍卖行以 1050 万美元的价格售出。这幅布面油画作品此前曾被交易过 4 次
Institutional exposure has also played a crucial role in shaping Kusama’s reception in China. Over the past two decades, China has experienced an extraordinary museum boom, with hundreds of new institutions opening across the country. In this environment, exhibitions that combine strong visual appeal with historical significance have proven particularly successful.
Major exhibitions during the 2010s introduced Kusama to a wider Chinese audience. Among the most influential was “Yayoi Kusama: All About Love,” held in Shanghai in 2017. Touring exhibitions such as “Life Is the Heart of a Rainbow” further expanded public familiarity with her work. Museums including the Power Station of Art in Shanghai and other contemporary art institutions presented Kusama not simply as the creator of visually striking installations, but as a central figure within the international avant-garde.
These exhibitions emphasized the full scope of her career. Curators highlighted her early New York years, her experimental performances in the 1960s, and her radical approach to painting and sculpture. By situating Kusama within the broader narrative of twentieth-century art, these exhibitions helped audiences understand her work as historically significant rather than merely visually entertaining.
与此同时，中国近年来的博物馆发展也为草间弥生的传播提供了重要条件。过去二十年间，中国经历了一次规模空前的“博物馆热潮”，全国各地建立了大量新的公共与私人艺术机构。在这样的背景下，那些既具有视觉吸引力、又具有艺术史意义的展览往往更容易获得成功。
2010年代，一系列重要展览帮助中国观众更系统地认识草间弥生。其中最具影响力的展览之一是2017年在上海举办的 “爱的一切：草间弥生”。随后巡展的 “生命之光：草间弥生” 也进一步扩大了公众对她作品的认知。上海当代艺术博物馆等机构在展览中不仅展示了她标志性的装置作品，也强调了她在国际前卫艺术史中的重要地位。
这些展览让观众看到草间弥生完整的艺术轨迹：从纽约时期的实验绘画，到1960年代的行为艺术，再到后期发展出的雕塑与装置实践。通过这样的历史脉络，她的作品不再只是“好拍照的装置”，而是被理解为二十世纪艺术史中的重要篇章。
Beyond museums, the art market itself has further reinforced Kusama’s popularity among Chinese collectors. Auction data over the past decade shows sustained demand for her work across Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, which has become one of the most important global hubs for trading her art. According to figures frequently cited by Sotheby’s, 61 percent of bidders for Kusama’s works now come from Asia, compared with 19 percent from Europe and 16 percent from North America. This distribution illustrates the growing influence of Asian collectors within the global contemporary art market.
Auction results further confirm this trend. Among Kusama’s highest prices achieved between 2018 and 2023, several were recorded in Hong Kong salesrooms. Sculptural pumpkins have proven especially attractive to collectors in the region. A 2013 pumpkin sculpture sold for $8 million at Christie’s Hong Kong in December 2021, while another pumpkin from 2014 reached $8 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2023. Earlier works also perform strongly: a 1995 pumpkin sculpture achieved $7.1 million at Phillips Hong Kong in March 2023, while a 2011 pumpkin sculpture sold for $7 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong the following month.
Paintings from the celebrated Infinity Net series remain equally significant. One early Untitled (Nets) painting from 1959 achieved $10.5 million at Phillips New York in 2022, illustrating the continued importance of these works within Kusama’s market. Even so, the prominence of Hong Kong sales across the top auction results demonstrates the central role Asian collectors now play in sustaining demand for the artist.
除了博物馆系统之外，艺术市场同样在巩固草间弥生在中国藏家中的地位。过去十多年中，亚洲地区——尤其是香港——逐渐成为交易草间弥生作品的重要市场。根据苏富比公布的数据，目前约61%的草间弥生作品竞标者来自亚洲，而欧洲和北美分别占19%和16%。这一比例不仅反映出亚洲藏家的强劲需求，也说明亚洲正在逐渐成为全球当代艺术市场的重要力量。
具体的拍卖结果同样印证了这一趋势。在草间弥生2018年至2023年间的多件高价成交作品中，香港拍卖占据了相当重要的位置。她标志性的南瓜雕塑尤其受到藏家欢迎。例如，一件2013年的南瓜雕塑在2021年12月佳士得香港拍卖中以 800万美元成交；另一件2014年的南瓜雕塑则在2023年4月苏富比香港拍卖中同样达到 800万美元。
较早期的作品同样表现强劲。一件1995年的南瓜雕塑在2023年3月富艺斯香港拍卖中以 710万美元成交，而一件2011年的南瓜雕塑在同年4月苏富比香港拍卖中达到 700万美元。与此同时，她的绘画作品也持续受到市场关注。一幅1959年的《无限网》绘画在2022年纽约富艺斯拍卖中以 1050万美元成交，显示出这一系列在艺术史和市场中的重要地位。
Top ten most expensive artworks by Kusama sold at auction /
草间弥生十大拍卖成交价最高的艺术作品
This market structure allows Kusama’s work to appeal to collectors at several different levels. Major paintings and sculptures command the highest prices and function as anchor works within serious collections. At the same time, smaller sculptures, works on paper, and prints provide more accessible entry points for younger collectors entering the market while still carrying the artist’s distinctive visual language.
For Chinese collectors in particular, Kusama’s work offers a combination that is difficult to replicate: clear art historical importance, an instantly recognizable aesthetic, and a robust secondary market supported by international institutions and auction houses. These elements together create a sense of confidence. Collectors are not simply acquiring visually compelling objects but participating in a global narrative of contemporary art.
Seen in this broader context, the polka-dotted sculpture I encountered in Guangzhou feels less like an anomaly and more like a symbol of Kusama’s expanding cultural presence. What began as deeply personal visions—hallucinations of endless patterns that Kusama experienced as a child—has evolved into one of the most recognizable visual languages in contemporary art.
In China, that language has found an audience particularly receptive to its mixture of spectacle, philosophy, and artistic persistence. Whether encountered in museum exhibitions, auction catalogues, or unexpectedly in public plazas, Kusama’s dots continue to expand outward. Judging by the enthusiasm of collectors across Asia, they are likely to keep multiplying for many years to come.
这些拍卖结果表明，亚洲藏家已经成为支撑草间弥生市场的重要力量。她的作品在不同价格层级上都具有吸引力：大型绘画和雕塑是重要收藏的核心作品，而较小的雕塑、版画以及纸本作品则为年轻藏家提供了进入市场的机会。
对中国藏家而言，草间弥生的作品具有一种难得的综合优势：明确的艺术史地位、极高的视觉辨识度，以及由国际机构和拍卖行支撑的稳定二级市场。这些因素共同构成了一种市场信心。收藏草间弥生，不仅是在购买一件视觉上具有冲击力的作品，同时也是在参与一个全球性的当代艺术叙事。
从这个角度来看，当初在广州广场上看到那件波点雕塑，其实并不是一个偶然的事件。它更像是草间弥生文化影响力不断扩张的一个象征。从童年幻觉中诞生的图案语言，经过数十年的发展，已经成为当代艺术中最具识别度的视觉符号之一。
而在中国，这种语言找到了一个格外热情的观众群体。无论是在博物馆展览、拍卖图录，还是在城市公共空间中偶然出现的雕塑，草间弥生的波点仍在不断扩散。只要亚洲藏家的热情仍然存在，这些波点很可能还会继续延伸下去。
© 2026 by Hector Chen