Yayoi Kusama's Hat (Yellow) (1983) takes a wide-brimmed hat and renders it in yellow on black — the crown tiered and rounded, the brim extending outward on both sides, a feather or decorative element curving to the right, the whole object covered in repeated yellow dots that anticipate the pumpkin works developing across this period. The dots move from small marks along the outer edges of the crown to large bold circles across its broadest passages, a gradual scaling that gives the hat its sense of volume and weight. The brim is handled differently, horizontal lines creating a striped rhythm across its flatter surface, whilst the feather is mapped in a diagonal grid that separates it visually from both crown and brim.

The black ground carries a yellow network of irregular leaf-like lines in a palette closely tied to the hat itself, allowing the object and the surrounding surface to operate within the same narrow range of tones. From a distance the hat remains clearly legible; closer inspection pulls the yellow lines of the background into the form, the edges between object and setting becoming less stable. Hat (Yellow) belongs to the Hats and Shoes portfolio of the early 1980s — a body of work in which Kusama turned her attention toward personal accessories at a moment when fashion, self-presentation and the decorated body were becoming increasingly central to her practice.

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