NGV’s blockbuster summer exhibition Yayoi Kusama opens next month, and it’ll have 180 artworks by the Japanese artist – including never-seen-before sculptures. One of those sculptures has now arrived at NGV International’s Federation Court, the Dancing Pumpkin (2020).

The sprawling sculpture is one of Kusama’s largest and most ambitious creations using her signature yellow-and-black polka-dotted pumpkin motif. It’s five metres tall and weighs more than nine tonnes, and the artwork is now part of the NGV’s permanent collection thanks to the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund.

Only two editions of the artwork have been shown before, at the New York Botanical Garden in 2021 and at the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar in 2022–3, making this a special new acquisition. It’s positioned outside the ticketed areas of the upcoming exhibition so it’s also free to check out now and during the Yayoi Kusama retrospective.

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There’ll be other free-to-access artworks on display when the exhibition opens on December 15, including The Obliteration Room, Narcissus Garden, and a pink-and-black polka dot work developed especially for the NGV waterwall.

Displayed across the entire ground floor of NGV International, Yayoi Kusama will be the most comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the contemporary artist to ever be presented. It’ll trace her eight-decade career including more sculptures, paintings, collages, film and fashion objects.

The Dancing Pumpkin is now on display at NGV International. Free entry. Yayoi Kusama runs from December 15 to April 21.