AusLeisure

The Sculpture Park at Pt. Leo Estate situated on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has secured a work of Japan’s most successful living artist,Yayoi Kusama.

The Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) work will take centre stage on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula from this weekend, as Pt. Leo Estate unveils the first major-scale pumpkin sculpture to be seen in Australia.

Along with the sculpture park, the estate is home to over 300 acres of vines and restaurants.

Created larger than life in bronze, mosaic and stainless steel, with apertures often cut out of their surfaces to create dot-pattern plays with light and shadow,  the new red and black Pumpkin will be installed at Pt. Leo Estate with the trailblazing Japanese artist the latest to join KAWS, Jaume Plensa, Inge King, Bronwyn Oliver, Reko Rennie, Julian Opie, Deborah Halpern, Henry Moore, Antony Gormley, Clement Meadmore, Jeppe Hein and Andrew  Rogers.

The Kusama acquisition marks a milestone moment for the Estate, continuing to add to its collection of the world’s most coveted works of contemporary art and enhancing the sculpture park as a standalone art destination. With a backdrop of rolling vineyards and ocean views out to Western Port Bay and Phillip Island, the expansive grounds feature over 50 mainly large-scale sculptures from around the world.

Pt. Leo Sculpture Park Consultant Curator, Geoffrey Edwards enthused “we are thrilled to announce that Australia’s foremost Sculpture Park at Pt. Leo Estate has acquired a red and black Pumpkin. At three-metres wide, the monumental work is much larger than Kusama’s iconic Naoshima sculpture and enjoys a spectacular Victorian coastal vista as backdrop.”

In August 2021, the art world was aghast to watch news footage showing the Japanese artist’s famous yellow and black pumpkin sculpture washed out to sea in a typhoon off the coast of Japan’s Naoshima art island.  That pumpkin, by far the largest ever made by the artist at the time, was later retrieved, remade and returned to the end of its iconic pier.

Kusama’s world-famous pumpkins are odes to the artist’s childhood experience living on a small farm imagining that she was lost in a field of flowers that began to speak to her. The massed flower heads resembled the dots that became an obsession for the mature artist, who had drawn pumpkins from a young age and decades later became an important and recurrent motif in her multidisciplinary practice.

“I am very pleased to showcase my work in such a wonderful place. The magical fusion of nature and my work is something special that can only be seen in each location,” says artist Yayoi Kusama of the Pumpkin at Pt. Leo Estate.

With the Pt. Leo Pumpkin and its red and black polka dots first conceived in 2019, nonagenarian  sculptor Kusama said of her celebrated motif “A polka dot has the form of the sun…a symbol of  the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm.  Round, soft, colourful, senseless and unknowing, Polka dots become movement…Polka dots are  a way to infinity.” Similarly, she admires the ‘humility and comfort’ of the form of the pumpkin  itself.

Kusama has been feted in major museums and galleries around the world including The Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Guggenheim (Bilbao), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles) TATE Modern (London), David Zwirner (NYC), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Yayoi Kusama Museum (Tokyo), M+M Museum (Hong Kong) and most recently The Art Gallery of NSW’s Sydney Modern  (Sydney) and many more.

Pt. Leo Estate’s major new acquisition was unveiled yesterday at Australia’s foremost sculpture park at  Merricks, Victoria. Visitors to Pt. Leo Estate can visit the work from Saturday, 25th November. Soon to be announced are different tributes to the Kusama aesthetic that will form part of the Point Leo Estate Experience.

Pt. Leo Estate Sculpture Park Hours & Access
Pt Leo Estate is located at 3649 Frankston-Flinders Road, Merricks Victoria.
The Sculpture Park is open daily from 11 am - 5 pm (last entry 4:30 pm).
Entry into the Park is $15 per adult and $8 concession with free entry for children under 12 years old.

Image. Yayoi Kusama’s Red and Black Pumpkin at Pt. Leo Estate Credit: Chris McConville

Related Articles

8th September 2021 - Sculpture by the Sea shares in $20 million government funding for Arts and Entertainment sector revitalisation

20th April 2021 - McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery celebrates 50th anniversary with exhibitions, prizes and book

20th July 2020 - Development commences on expanding Lachlan Valley Sculpture Trail

19th March 2020 - New landmark sculpture for Perth

31st December 2019 - Museum of Underwater Art sculptures submerged off Townsville

4th December 2019 - Casula Powerhouse set to launch inaugural Liverpool Sculpture Walk

20th September 2019 - Townsville artist commissioned for North Queensland Stadium sculpture

4th June 2019 - Sculpture at Scenic World boosts Blue Mountains visitor economy

2nd March 2017 - Blue Mountains sculpture exhibition recognised as a flagship tourism event

24th April 2016 - Record numbers visiting Sculpture at Scenic World

15th April 2013 - Rhino sculpture marks links between Dubbo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo

11th December 2012 - Abu Dhabi to construct world’s largest sculpture

1st December 2011 - Scenic World to host Australia’s first ancient rainforest sculpture exhibition

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.