Green Land at Night

Green Land at Night — Yayoi Kusama. 1953.

Medium: black chalk and green monotype with blue gouache. Dimensions: Sheet: 33.9 x 32.2 cm (13 3/8 x 12 11/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Kusama is known for her obsessive paintings and sculptures of repeated forms, but this earlier work develops a theme she explored at the beginning of her career, around the time she first exhibited her work in Tokyo. Using red paper, she drew luminous ovoid and round objects that evoke glowing planetary bodies. Here she employed a combination of techniques, including green monotype (meaning she applied the green pigment to another surface and then transferred it to the paper), which she then filled in with blue gouache (opaque watercolor).

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.