The Studio Venturas team has dozens of artistic inspirations. Exploring art, visiting exhibitions, learning more about these brilliant minds are all part of our daily routine. So we decided to bring you a monthly inspiration. Let’s share unique minds with wonderful works. Each with their own story and background.
Our first choice is Yayoi Kusama. The eccentric art of this contemporary artist is definitely peculiar. Her works contain a world of polka dots, which set her apart from any other artist. She’s everywhere, with an undeniable fame, so it’s very likely that you’ve seen photos of her work on Instagram or even visited an exhibition and seen it for yourself. But how about learning more about her career and her work?
Getting to know the artist and her art
Yayoi Kusama was born in Japan in 1929 and became known for her polka dots. Thanks to this passion, she was nicknamed The Princess of Polka Dots. All her artworks, from paintings to sculptures to performances, have one thing in common: polka dots!
Her fixation with polka dots came from a hallucination she had as a child: “One day I was looking at patterns of red flowers on the tablecloth and, when I looked up, I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally the whole room, my body and the universe”.
Yayoi Kusama in “Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field,” 1965.
“I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to spin in the infinity of endless time and the absolute of space”
Inspired by her hallucination, she created the “Infinity Nets”, a series of paintings and sculptures with infinite repetitions of polka dots. And to make everyone feel immersed in her vision and have the experience of self-obliteration, Kusama designed environments with a universe of dots: the “Infinity Rooms”, with hundreds of colored LED lights and several mirrors. The flashes of light in the dark room reflect in the mirrors, transforming it into a seemingly infinite space, and you feel as if you are part of the immensity. Pretty psychedelic, right?
Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away.
“We all live in the unfathomable mystery and infinitude of the universe. Seeking the ‘philosophy of the universe’ through art under such circumstances has led me to what I call ‘stereotyped repetition'”
Her relationship with art began at an early age: from an early age, she loved to draw and paint, but her parents didn’t support her and didn’t want her to pursue this career. The relationship with her mother was especially complicated – she would take Kusama’s drawings and tear them up. That wasn’t enough to stop her; her determination eventually convinced her parents to go to art school to study painting.
In 1948, she left home to study traditional Japanese art (nihonga) at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and graduated the following year. Her first solo exhibition took place in February 1952 at the Shirokiya Department Store, and she appeared on the cover of Mizue magazine. After three solo shows, Kusama’s work was included in the International Watercolor Exhibition: 18th Biennial at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1955.
Yayoi Kusama, 1939, drawing by her mother.
It was in 1957 that she moved to the United States. Her first stop was Seattle. She chose the city because of her relationship with the artist Kenneth Callahan – a lover of letters, she exchanged correspondence with Callahan, who lived in Seattle and invited her there.
The next destination was New York, in 1958. The place was attractive for obvious reasons: it was where everything was happening, especially in the art world. Her first exhibition in the city took place a year and a half after her arrival, in 1959, at New York’s Brata Gallery, with white-on-white paintings. She revealed that her intention was for these white paintings to “look like a bomb”.
She met and inspired many important artists such as Donald Judd (with whom she even had a romantic relationship), Andy Warhol and Joseph Cornell, and her art was part of major artistic movements such as pop art and minimalism. Georgia O’Keeffe was her friend and mentor, encouraging her own art dealer to buy several of her works.
Kusama in her studio in New York.
In the 1960s, she began making performance art. In 1966, at the 33rd Venice Biennale, Kusama installed the famous Narcissus Garden. There were 1500 silver spheres covering the floor, and the work caused a stir when she decided to sell each sphere for US$2 — the police got involved and forced her to stop. Some saw the work as a critique of the self-centeredness that motivates the purchase of art.
Kusama in the Narcissus Garden at the Venice Biennale, 1966.
Her art is also political, having been involved in social struggles: in New York, during the Vietnam War, the artist orchestrated several protests. The Naked Demonstration/Anatomic Explosion took place in 1968, in which naked dancers distributed anti-capitalist statements on the New York Stock Exchange. That same year, she organized a naked crossing of the Brooklyn Bridge – she climbed the bridge dressed in a polka-dot suit in protest against the war and the damaging effects of capitalism.
Kusama, left, in “Anatomic Explosion” on the Brooklyn Bridge, 1968. Shunk-Kender/Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
In 1969, it was the turn of Grand Orgy to Awaken the Dead in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art, which made the cover of the New York Daily News and also brought up the idea of anti-war and free love, with naked performers next to masterpieces of modernism. In this work, she tackled themes such as identity, sexuality and the body. She also performed a gay wedding in 1968, long before it was legalized in New York. Kusama performed the ceremony in downtown Manhattan at 33 Walker Street in her Church of Self-obliteration.
To this day, she is against violence, with works that reinforce her anti-war stance. She even commented on the pandemic: “ Now is the time for people around the world to take a stand. My greatest gratitude goes to those who are already fighting” .
“But Is It Art?” in the New York Daily News, August 25, 1969 – Grand Orgy to Awaken the Dead.
“Our earth is a polka dot in the middle of a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a path to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.”
Yayoi has made her mark in several areas. In the fashion and beauty industry, she has already ventured with the Kusama Fashion Company Ltd. where she created clothes covered in polka dots. She has also collaborated with Marc Jacobs, when he was artistic director of Louis Vuitton, on the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Collection, and also with Lacome to make a lip gloss in 2013.
Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Collection, 2012.
She also embarked on writing, publishing books such as the erotic Kusama’s Orgy and her autobiographical novel, Manhattan Suicide Addict, based on her years as an artist in New York. She even received a new writer award at the Tenth Literary Award for New Writers (Yasei Jidai Magazine) for her book Hustlers Grotto.
And it doesn’t stop there: Kusama wrote and directed a psychedelic drama called Self-Obliteration in 1967. She also collaborated with Peter Gabriel – the music video for the song Lovetown was based on her art.
Self-obliteration, Kusama, 1967.
The artist returned to Japan in 1973 and, in 1977, decided, by her own choice, to check herself into Seiwa Hospital in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where she still lives today. After her return to her native country, she went through a period of relative oblivion, but resurfaced during the 1993 Venice Biennale, thirty years after her first presentation there.
“Infinity Room” for the Venice Biennale, 1993.
With so many people wanting to see her exhibitions in museums and galleries, it’s obvious that Yayoi Kusama has undisputed fame. Her success is reflected in the values of her works, which is why she holds the title of the highest auction prices of any living female artist. Considering the dead, it’s her mentor Georgia O’Keeffe who wins that title.
This is just one part of the art and career of this artist who doesn’t like to associate her work with an artistic movement, preferring to call it “Kusama art”. It’s worth looking for more and seeing all the incredible things she has created!
