"Kusama" redirects here. For the film director, see Karyn Kusama.
Yayoi Kusama 草間 彌生
Wax model (2012)
Born
Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生)
(1929-03-22) 22 March 1929 (age 95)
Matsumoto, Nagano, Empire of Japan
Nationality
Japanese
Known for
Painting
drawing
sculpture
installation art
performance art
film
fiction
fashion
writing
Movement
Pop art
minimalism
feminist art
environmental art
Awards
Praemium Imperiale
Website
www.yayoi-kusama.jp
Yayoi Kusama in Speaking Portraits
Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生, Kusama Yayoi, born 22 March 1929) is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. She has been acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan,[1] the world's top-selling female artist,[2] and the world's most successful living artist.[3] Her work influenced that of her contemporaries, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.
Kusama was raised in Matsumoto, and trained at the Kyoto City University of Arts for a year in a traditional Japanese painting style called nihonga.[4] She was inspired by American Abstract impressionism. She moved to New York City in 1958 and was a part of the New York avant-garde scene throughout the 1960s, especially in the pop-art movement.[5] Embracing the rise of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s, she came to public attention when she organized a series of happenings in which naked participants were painted with brightly coloured polka dots.[6][7] She experienced a period in the 70s during which her work was largely forgotten, but a revival of interest in the 1980s brought her art back into public view. Kusama has continued to create art in various museums around the world, from the 1950s through the 2020s.[8]
Kusama has been open about her mental health and has resided since the 1970s in a mental health facility which she leaves daily to walk to her nearby studio to work. She says that art has become her way to express her mental problems.[9] "I fight pain, anxiety, and fear every day, and the only method I have found that relieved my illness is to keep creating art," she told an interviewer in 2012. "I followed the thread of art and somehow discovered a path that would allow me to live."[10]
^Yamamura, Midori (2015), Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
^Tran, John L. (7 November 2019). "Yayoi Kusama: The underdog story of a Japanese art maverick". The Japan Times. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
^Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Yayoi Kusama". guggenheim.org. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
^Griselda, Pollock (2006). Psychoanalysis and the image: transdisciplinary perspectives. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 127–160.
^"Yayoi Kusama, Harry Shunk, János Kender. The Anatomic Explosion, New York. 1968 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
^"Yayoi Kusama, Harry Shunk, János Kender. Mirror Performance, New York. 1968 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
^Taylor, Kate (28 February 2018). "How Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors pushed pop art into the new age". Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
^"Yayoi Kusama Biography, Life & Quotes". The Art Story. Archived from the original on 29 February 2020. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
^Swanson, Carl (6 July 2012). "The Art of the Flame-Out". New York. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
YayoiKusama (草間 彌生, KusamaYayoi, born 22 March 1929) is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also...
The YayoiKusama Museum is a contemporary art museum in Tokyo, Japan, dedicated to the work of the Japanese artist YayoiKusama. The museum is located...
sculpture is an old German technique very popular in Japan with artists like YayoiKusama boosting the heritages of this new and innovative medium for interior...
Herrera For Men, Aquaflore and Flore. Much of the Japanese artist YayoiKusama's work features a polka dot motif, and the cryptocurrency Polkadot takes...
site-specific installation art and features permanent installations by artists YayoiKusama, James Turrell, and Greer Lankton. The museum's roof itself is a light...
has also partnered with individual artists such as David Shrigley and YayoiKusama to produce collections featuring their work. Casetify has also collaborated...
festivities. Clouds – A 90-piece set of stainless steel structure mirrors by YayoiKusama, displayed on the ground. Seekers Paradise – An installation art piece...
Infinity Mirror Room, is an art installation in Phoenix Art Museum by YayoiKusama. It is located in the museum's North Wing, on the first floor. The installation...
Japanese to travel overseas in the 1960s, some female artists such as YayoiKusama and Yoko Ono found better reception overseas, and decamped for artistic...
highly prolific career, whose diversity could exasperate his critics. YayoiKusama is a Japanese artist who, throughout her career, has worked with a great...
especially contemporary sculptors, have made use of infinity mirrors. YayoiKusama, Josiah McElheny, Ivan Navarro, Taylor Davis, Anthony James, and Guillaume...
Ela (2022). "Ace and aro lesbian art and theory with Agnes Martin and YayoiKusama". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 26 (1): 89–112. doi:10.1080/10894160.2021...
number of notable 1960s artists, including musician Bob Dylan, artist YayoiKusama, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol (and Factory hangers-on), Canadian...
mirror, polished steel and fluorescent lights. Inspired by the work of YayoiKusama and Bruce Nauman, "Kube" was crafted by hand in Brooklyn with the help...
pop art to unprecedented levels. Other notable installations include YayoiKusama's Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013)...
Concourse level also holds an even larger 120 ft-long (37 m) mosaic by YayoiKusama: "A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe". Transportation...
theater recurred in eight subsequent performances. The Japanese artist YayoiKusama staged nude happenings during the late '60s in New York City. Happenings...
identified, such as Rain Room, Urban Light, and the mirrored rooms of YayoiKusama. The large-scale experimental artworks exhibited at the Burning Man festival...
by noted Brazilian and international artists, such as Hélio Oiticica, YayoiKusama, Anish Kapoor, Thomas Hirschhorn, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Steve...
theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/19/yayoi-kusama-and-kiki-smith-to-create-giant-mosaics-for-new-manhattan-train-station] Ben Sutton, YayoiKusama and Kiki Smith to create...
around the world including 'Infinity Mirrored Room' by Japanese artist YayoiKusama. The museum houses collections of paintings such as: Great Criticism:...
contemporary artists including Tom Wesselmann's Great American Nude #39, and YayoiKusama's Ten Guest Table. In 1965, Green left the gallery and at the age of 25...
Saint Phalle, Jim Whiting, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, and YayoiKusama, have interpreted crystal in their own ways. 18 show rooms were created...
of internationally-renowned artists from Japan and beyond, including YayoiKusama, Ai Weiwei, Bill Viola, Cao Fei, Anish Kapoor, and Jeff Koons. Today...
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