Yayoi Kusama, Artist Known For Dots And Infinity Rooms, Dies At 97

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Yayoi Kusama, the influential Japanese artist celebrated for her abstract paintings and immersive installations, passed away on August 14 at a hospital in Tokyo. She was 97 years old.

Her death was announced by the David Zwirner gallery, which represented Kusama, stating the cause as multiple organ failure.

For seven decades, Kusama cultivated a unique artistic vision, becoming a globally recognized figure who shaped contemporary art.“I will keep on making my art until the day I die,” she once stated.“And even after I die, my spirit will keep creating new art.” Her practice often began with the simple motif of polka dots, which through obsessive repetition, aimed to convey the universe's boundless nature.“I want to create things that are infinite, expand beyond the canvas,” she explained. Her iconic works, including the“Infinity Nets,”“Infinity Mirror Rooms,” and her recognizable pumpkin sculptures, garnered significant public appeal, a rarity in contemporary art.

Kusama's career unfolded in two distinct phases. The first began in 1957, when, at 28, she departed rural Japan, finding its society“too small” for her ambitions, and moved to New York. There, she navigated a predominantly white and male art scene, earning the respect of artists such as Donald Judd, Joseph Cornell, and Eva Hesse through her experimental“soft sculpture” and“installation” works. Despite this recognition, she faced financial hardship and battled suicidal thoughts.

The second phase, in the 21st century, saw Kusama achieve widespread fame that surpassed that of her contemporaries. Her“Infinity Mirror Rooms” drew hundreds of thousands of visitors to institutions like the Tate Modern in London, The Broad in Los Angeles, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Millions more engaged with her exhibitions via social media.

In 2023, Kusama collaborated with Louis Vuitton, resulting in robot likenesses of the artist appearing in store windows to promote a new collection of polka-dotted accessories, and a massive inflatable version of her figure installed above the brand's Paris flagship store. While delighting passersby, this commercial venture also highlighted the divergence between Kusama as a cultural icon and the individual artist. Her lifelong struggles with mental health led her to voluntarily reside in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital beginning in 1977. In her final years, Kusama rarely made public appearances, even as her art continued to expand in scale and global reach.

Born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Japan, to parents who operated a plant nursery, Kusama described an unhappy childhood marked by a physically abusive mother and an unfaithful father. Around age 10, she experienced her first powerful hallucination, seeing a pattern of red flowers spread from a tablecloth to encompass“the whole room, my whole body, and the whole universe.” These involuntary visions, which she described as“self-obliteration,” became central to her artistic practice.

Upon her arrival in New York in the late 1950s, with limited English and no connections, Kusama sought advice from Georgia O'Keeffe, who encouraged her to persistently promote her work.“So I went out every day and showed my paintings to whomever I met,” Kusama recounted.“Donald Judd was the first person who bought a painting. He paid $200 in four payments.” Judd also became a close friend and advocate.

During a period dominated by Abstract Expressionism, Kusama's early“Infinity Nets” series resonated with the prevailing artistic currents. These large-scale paintings, composed of repetitive, minute movements forming intricate, undulating lattices, hinted at the boundless visions she would later explore. Recognizing that traditional canvases could not contain her expansive artistic concepts, Kusama began to move beyond flat mediums.

Her initial departure into sculpture involved creating“soft sculptures” by covering furniture and ordinary objects, such as clothing accessories or dustpans, with hand-sewn, stuffed phallic protrusions, an act she termed“accumulation.” This humorous eroticization of domestic items reflected her complex feelings about sex, which developed into an aversion at a young age, and her readiness to incorporate bodily or grotesque elements. These early sculptural works were exhibited alongside pieces by Andy Warhol, Robert Morris, and Claes Oldenburg at the esteemed Green Gallery in 1962.

By 1965, Kusama developed a method to realize her expansive concepts without boundaries, culminating in her breakthrough,“Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli's Field.” This immersive environment enveloped visitors in a sensory experience, replicating red-and-white dots endlessly through its four reflective walls and trademark protrusions. Photographs from the era show Kusama lying among the inflated phalli, embodying the experience of“self-obliteration” and sharing this overwhelming sensation with others.

Kusama's polka dots soon extended beyond gallery walls into public spaces through a series of late 1960s“Happenings.” At her“fashion shows,” which also served as protests against the Vietnam War, she unveiled avant-garde outfits and painted naked bodies with large, round splotches. Her aim, she said, was for participants to“self-obliterate and return to the nature of the universe.” As the“High Priestess of Polka Dots” at the Church of Self-Obliteration, she officiated a wedding between two men in 1968. The following year, an unauthorized performance titled“Grand Orgy to Awaken the Dead” took place in the sculpture garden fountain at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring eight nude performers mimicking poses of sculptures by artists like Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso. This event made the front page of the New York Daily News, significantly raising Kusama's public profile.

After Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, her reputation waned. Her homeland had historically viewed the more provocative aspects of her art with hostility, even prohibiting her from exhibiting in its pavilion at the 1966 Venice Biennale. Despite this, she attended, transforming the exterior lawn into a“Narcissus Garden” of 1,500 shiny, reflective balls, an installation that drew considerable attention. It took nearly three decades for social attitudes to evolve sufficiently for Kusama to be invited to represent Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale.

Her presentation at the 1993 Venice Biennale included historical works and a mirror room filled with small pumpkin sculptures, a motif she had drawn since elementary school. These distinctive, polka-dotted gourds would eventually grow to monumental scale. Today, the appearance of one of these pieces in a public setting often generates headlines. When a pumpkin sculpture was carried out to sea by a typhoon in 2021, the unusual spectacle resonated widely, becoming a poignant symbol of impending climate change doom.

Kusama's most significant works consistently command millions at auction, and leading art museums have actively sought to host retrospectives of her career. Her high-profile institutional exhibitions have included showings at prominent US venues.

We previously reported:

A 2012 Whitney Museum retrospective of Yayoi Kusama's work was criticized as "tepid" and limited, failing to capture the artist's full energy.

Source: Artnet News

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