Large White Net,

1958

From a distance this painting appears to be a continuous pale white field. Closer examination, however, reveals a thin veil of arcs and skeins of paint forming a net across the surface, through which a blue-toned ground is visible. Created during Kusama’s first months as an émigré in New York in the late 1950s, Large White Net and other early paintings synthesized her response to the currents of abstract art that she encountered in the city. Reflecting her interest in seriality and repetition, her works are feats of endurance, made in sessions that lasted up to fifty hours, often ending when she divided the canvas into multiple paintings. Kusama’s lengthy process entailed using small, rhythmic gestures to produce an accretion of marks that seem to extend beyond the canvas indefinitely, reflecting her interest in compositional structures that suggest infinity.