Famous artist Yayoi Kusama's "polka dot yellow pumpkin" is no stranger to everyone, this giant sculpture located in the docks of Naoshima, Japan, has always been the darling of tourists. However, the recent typhoon "Rupee" hit southwest Japan, bringing wild storms to Naoshima, and some netizens photographed pumpkins directly being swept away by the wind and waves. On Monday afternoon, the benesse art site, an exhibition hall that houses pumpkins, confirmed that the artwork had been damaged by a typhoon and had been removed by staff for restoration. Once the artwork is on display again, it will be informed to the public as soon as it is.
Naoshima's iconic pumpkin sculpture was blown over the sea
Naoshima, located in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, is a traditional fishing village. Over the years, under the transformation of artists such as Tadao Ando, Naoshima has transformed into an art island that combines avant-garde art and creativity, and has introduced many cultural landmarks such as Tadao Ando Museum and The Jichu Art Museum. In 1994, Kusama's pumpkin series entered Naoshima, red pumpkins were placed in Miyaura Port, and yellow pumpkins were located on the seashore, among which the latter were more popular: the bright yellow pumpkin skin with the iconic black dots looked particularly fresh under the blue sky of the Seto Inland Sea, and it was also a must-see landmark of the triennial "Seto Inland Sea Art Festival", attracting a large number of tourists.
Yellow pumpkins appear frequently at the Seto Inland Sea Art Festival
Red pumpkin is also located on Naoshima
As an avant-garde artist, Yayoi Kusama has a soft spot for pumpkins, an ordinary plant. She once said, "The first time I saw pumpkins was when I was in elementary school. When I went to play in my grandfather's nursery, I saw yellow flowers and small pumpkins on the side of the path. I reached for the dense leaves and flipped into them to find a pumpkin. When I tried to twist it off the stem, I heard the pumpkin say something to me with its life. ”
Childhood memories and feelings have driven Kusama Yayoi to create many outdoor sculptures based on pumpkins since the 1990s, which have been very popular in the art market. In addition to Naoshima's red and yellow pumpkins, her pumpkin works often fetch millions of dollars, such as a yellow polka dot pumpkin installation at Christie's in London in 2009, which sold for about HK$28.8 million (about 23.98 million yuan, the same below); another similar painting, "Pumpkin (twpot)", fell in Hong Kong in 2019 for HK$46 million (about 38.3 million yuan). The Naoshima yellow pumpkin, which was blown over to the sea this time, is huge in size and is kusama's first open-air sculpture, and some experts estimate that the sculpture is worth at least millions of dollars.
Fortunately, although the "millions" rolled in the waves, they were finally rescued by the staff. It is reported that every year before the typhoon season, the cucumber will be moved to a safe place, but this typhoon raid, the staff did not have time to remove the pumpkin, so that it fell into the sea.
This accident made everyone realize that the pumpkin was hollow
Netizens around the world have expressed surprise after seeing the film, and some angles even see that the pumpkin has broken, and some people have found that the pumpkin sculpture was originally hollow. The follow-up repair of naoshima pumpkin is to be discussed by Yayoi Kusama and the museum, and netizens continue to gather their strength to bless the pumpkin and hope that it will "recover soon".
Pictured: ppdisundia@twitter, benesse_artsite@twitter, mira_fitz@twitter, unsplash