Yayoi Kusama
Avant-garde artist, novelist
Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929, in Matsumoto City, Japan. From childhood she experienced visions and hallucinations, which engendered her first polka-dot and net-themed drawings. Using watercolors, pastels, and oil paints, she developed her own unique form of expression at an early age.
Kusama relocated to the United States in 1957. The following year, while based in New York City, she began exhibiting innovative works in rapid succession, including net paintings, soft sculptures, and installations employing mirrors and lights. She formulated a philosophy of art she dubbed “self-obliteration” based on simple motifs of obsessive repetition and proliferation. The scope of her activities widened to include body painting events, fashion shows, anti-war “happenings,” films, and newsletters, helping to establish her status as a leading avant-garde artist.
After returning to Japan in 1973, she resumed writing fiction and poetry and created outdoor sculptures, large-scale installations, and the “Infinity Mirror Room” series. In 2009, she began work on her “My Eternal Soul” series, which continued until 2021, by which time she had produced roughly 900 paintings. In 2021, she began work on a new series, “Every Day I Pray for Love.” Today she continues energetically producing works with a consistent theme of infinity transcending nature, love, life, and death.
The Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo in 2017.
