A bizarre giant pumpkin sculpture could soon adorn Hyde Park just yards from Kensington Palace, MailOnline can reveal.
Plans have been submitted for a large polka dot artwork called ‘Pumpkin’ by contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
The 94-year-old is well known for her art featuring her signature polka dots, as well as her endless dark and glittering rooms that pop up in major cities and then flood Instagram feeds.
Celebrities flocked to his exhibitions in London, Los Angeles and New York.
The brown with black polka dot creation, based on a Kabocha or Japanese pumpkin, will measure six feet high and 5.5 meters in diameter. It will take place from June to November this year if planning permission is granted.
The large polka dot artwork called “Pumpkin” is created by Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama (artist print)
Kusama’s pumpkins (pictured) have taken on many shapes, colors and forms and his works are admired around the world.
The artist has teamed up with the Serpentine Gallery and the Royal Parks to bring the creation to London. Kusama’s will be the final presentation in a long series of public presentations in Hyde Park.
The artist frequently used the shape of a pumpkin in his work. She first performed them in 1946 and have since been translated into numerous media.
Over the years, Kusama pumpkins have taken on many shapes, colors and forms, while still being covered in its famous polka dot pattern in various sizes.
The artist’s relationship with kabocha dates back to his childhood, as his family home was surrounded by squash fields.
Serpentine Gallery planning officers also explained that the artist admired them for “their everyday quality, robustness and unique, often humorous forms”.
The sculpture would be located near Kensington Palace in Hyde Park
Plans have been lodged by the Serpentine Gallery with Westminster City Council.
She once said, “Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood. They tell me about the joy of living.
“They are both humbling and fun, and I have always celebrated them in my art.”
In planning documents submitted to Westminster City Council, planning officers DP9 Ltd added: “Yayoi Kusama is one of the most celebrated artists of our time.
“Over the course of her eight-decade career, she has developed a unique and diverse body of work that, highly personal in nature, deeply touches global audiences.
“The sculpture is to be located on a flat meadow between the Serpentine Gallery and Kensington Palace, and will be positioned in an area on the southeast side of the sculpted round pond.”
World-renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (pictured in 2017) is one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Kusama yellow pumpkin. It has become something of a tourist brand since it was installed on one of the island’s piers in 1994.
Born in 1929 in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, Kusama suffered from psychological trauma due to arguments between her parents and was already drawing dots and nets as a child, based on her hallucinatory experiences.
After moving to the United States in 1957, at the age of 28, Kusama became a fixture in the Pop and Minimalism art movements of the 1960s.
During a 16-year stay in New York, she staged “happenings” at the height of the sexual liberation movement, where people undressed and had their bodies painted in polka dots on Wall Street or Central Park.
By the time Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, she was exhausted and voluntarily committed to a psychiatric ward where she has lived ever since.
It was not until the 1990s that Kusama was “rediscovered”.
Hong Kong art company Art Incorporated Ltd claimed to have paid Gulbenkian £1.1 million for the ‘Kusama Pumpkin’ but never received the piece.
German socialite Angela Gulbenkian, 39, was jailed for fraud involving one of Kusama’s sculptures.
Her commercial success was highlighted when she collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2012 and she was named the world’s most popular artist in 2014 by the Art Newspaper.
She often appears in a wheelchair and sporting her signature red wig.
Kusama was also named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and is nicknamed “The Queen of Polka Dots.”
One of his most famous installations is the Yellow Pumpkin in Naoshima, Japan. It became something of a tourist brand when it was installed on one of the island’s piers in 1994.
The artwork was severely damaged after being swept away by a severe typhoon in August 2021, but was later restored.
German socialite Angela Gulbenkian was jailed in 2021 for fraud involving a Kusama artwork.
She pocketed a £982,000 payment for a large polka dot artwork called ‘Kusama Pumpkin’, but never handed over the item.
Gulbenkian, a member of one of Europe’s richest art collecting families, then squandered his funds in just eight months maintaining a “lavish” lifestyle – including a £288,000 shopping spree, a £25,000 Rolex watch and private jet hire.
Mika Yoshitake, curator of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibition, poses his souls millions of light years away at the Hirshhorn Museum on February 21, 2017 in Washington, DC
Gulbenkian was allegedly introduced to a Hong Kong-based art company, Art Incorporated Limited (AIL) in late 2016 and claimed to have been able to procure from them a sculpture by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, titled Yellow Pumpkin, whose owner is unknown.
In May 2017, after the sale was completed, AIL transferred $1.275 million to Gulbenkian’s personal bank account. However, the artwork was never delivered.
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