Art Instagram-ready: Japan's art icon Yayoi Kusama

[thomas]

DW on Japan's art icon Kusama Yayoi, who remains an "art influencer" even at 97 years old.

Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan's foremost contemporary artists. She's known for her Instagramable "Infinity Rooms" — immersive installations that use mirrors, lights and reflective surfaces to create the illusion of endless space — as well as her large-scale polka dot sculptures. While her works often appear playful, behind them lies the story of a woman who has faced major social and mental health challenges. Around the age of 10, Yayoi Kusama began experiencing hallucinations, seeing dots and net patterns enveloping everything in her mind's eye. She has attributed these early visions to the psychological strain of growing up with an unloving mother, who forbade her from painting and tried to impose traditional expectations on her behavior. Although she continues to experience hallucinations, Kusama has learned to live with them and channel them into her art. "My artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease," Kusama once told US arts publication Bomb Magazine. After attending the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama held her first exhibitions in her hometown of Matsumoto. She was unusually open about her mental health at a time when such topics were heavily stigmatized. "It was extraordinary that she addressed it so openly," said Stephan Diederich, curator of the Kusama retrospective at Cologne's Museum Ludwig, which is on show until August 2, 2026.

At 97, Japan's art icon Yayoi Kusama is Instagram-ready

Despite her age, Yayoi Kusama's art and its subject matter remain highly relevant. A retrospective of the Japanese artist's work is now on show at Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

www.dw.com

Yayoi Kusama

• イェンス
• 24 Nov 2019
• kagawa naoshima yayoi kusama

Yayoi Kusama’s iconic pumpkin sculpture at Miyanoura Port.

Yayoi Kusama Museum Tour

Yayoi Kusama Museum Tour in a 360 video in 2 Minutes Yayoi Kusama Museum (草間彌生美術館) is a museum of modern art dedicated to the work of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The Japanese architecture firm Kume Sekkei designed the five-floor building. The Yayoi Kusama Museum...

• tokyopaul
• 2 Feb 2021
• Category: Travel & Nature
• Blog: Travels In Japan

Yayoi Kusama Museum

Yayoi Kusama Museum was founded by the avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, and is run by the Yayoi Kusama Foundation. It opened in 2017 with the aim of spreading and promoting Kusama’s art, exhibiting her works and related materials to contribute to the deve

• thomas
• 2 Jan 2020
• Views: 340
• Category: Museums