Deep Dive - Yayoi Kusama
Biography A vital part of New York’s avant-garde art scene from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Yayoi Kusama developed a distinctive style utilizing approaches associated with Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop art, Feminist art, and Institutional Critique—but she always defined herself in her own terms. “I am an obsessional artist,” she once said. “People may call me otherwise, but…I consider myself a heretic of the art world.” Kusama was born in 1929 into a well-off but dysfunctional family in Nagano, Japan. Largely shielded from the horrors of World War II, she was, as she has claimed, nevertheless scarred by her mother’s cruelty, her father’s infidelities, and her family’s discouragement of her interest in art making. She started painting at the age of 10 when she began experiencing the visual and aural hallucinations that would plague her, while also fueling her creativity, for the rest of her life. She has maintained that her “artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease.” After a stint studying traditional Japanese painting in Kyoto, Kusama left school and moved to New York in 1958. There she felt she could pursue her art unfettered—and make waves. “When I arrived in New York, action painting was the rage…” she reflected. “I wanted to be completely detached from that and start a new art movement.”3 She began by making large-scale monochromatic paintings, for which she quickly gained critical attention. By the 1960s, the prolific artist was producing paintings, drawings, sculpture, Happenings, installation, fashion, and film. In 1969, she founded Kusama Enterprises, a commercial outlet selling clothing, bags, and even cars. These products feature her singular aesthetic, characterized by her liberal use of polka dots and dense, repeating patterns to create a sense of infinity. In 1973, Kusama returned to Japan. Two years later, seeking treatment for her obsessive-compulsive neurosis, she entered a facility where she lives and works to this day. She continues to produce paintings and sculpture, and, in the 1980s, added poetry and fiction to her range of creative pursuits.
https://www.moma.org/artists/3315
Articles
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/23/yayoi-kusama-infinity-film-victoria-miro-exhibition
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/yayoi-kusama-museum-favorite-art-market-rise-1202694918/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-yayoi-kusamas-fascination-nature-crucial-understanding-art
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/yayoi-kusama-8094/introduction-yayoi-kusama
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/yayoi-kusama/
https://hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama/yayoi-kusama/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/yayoi-kusamas-existential-circus/528669/
https://magazine.artland.com/female-iconoclasts-yayoi-kusama/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-unstoppable-yayoi-kusama-1486394644
https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/41697/1/when-yayoi-kusama-was-forced-to-start-her-career-again-infinity-dogwoof
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/the-self-obliteration-of-yayoi-kusama/
https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/meet_the_artist/interview-yayoi-kusama-on-sixties-new-york-living-with-mental-illness-and-why-shes-never-thought-56560
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/works-by-the-much-loved-yayoi-kusama-return-to-the-hirshhorn-180979781/
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/yayoi-kusama
https://www.phillips.com/article/108269772/repetition-and-accumulation-7-things-you-need-to-know-about-yayoi-kusama
Videos and Documentary
Video Playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh4zYKaPKme5P5-UNf60in28ySK-wUorC
Documentary
Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama overcame impossible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the world stage. For decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from both her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, mental illness in a culture where that was particularly shameful and even continuing to pursue and be devoted to her art full time on the cusp of her 90s. In spite of it all, Kusama has endured and has created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry and literary fiction. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her installation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.
https://youtu.be/x8mdIB1WxHI
http://www.kusamamovie.com/
Books
Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/love-forever-yayoi-kusama-1958-1968_yayoi-kusama_laura-hoptman/9552957/item/11676908/?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZols38iu9Pk5L9EcWkRwRyQj1iDEmfwEie2gGk1Ld1HZR07CQ2n_6ZBhoCdTcQAvD_BwE#idiq=11676908&edition=8926727
Phaidon Yayoi Kusama - Revised and Expanded Edition Hardback Book
https://www.kathykuohome.com/Product/Detail/71033-Phaidon-Yayoi-Kusama-Revised-and-Expanded-Edition-Hardback-Book?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZolisqVK4JPUvroIr715CY5DEPdZWp7ujk5V6K4Q8NanIcc0Xdqd5HrBoCs2gQAvD_BwEInfinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusamahttps://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Net-Autobiography-Yayoi-Kusama/dp/1849762139/ref=asc_df_1849762139/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312138007830&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7662426563823962304&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007331&hvtargid=pla-452183887822&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=60258871097&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312138007830&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7662426563823962304&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007331&hvtargid=pla-452183887822
https://www.moma.org/artists/3315
Articles
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/23/yayoi-kusama-infinity-film-victoria-miro-exhibition
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/yayoi-kusama-museum-favorite-art-market-rise-1202694918/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-yayoi-kusamas-fascination-nature-crucial-understanding-art
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/yayoi-kusama-8094/introduction-yayoi-kusama
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/yayoi-kusama/
https://hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama/yayoi-kusama/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/yayoi-kusamas-existential-circus/528669/
https://magazine.artland.com/female-iconoclasts-yayoi-kusama/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-unstoppable-yayoi-kusama-1486394644
https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/41697/1/when-yayoi-kusama-was-forced-to-start-her-career-again-infinity-dogwoof
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/the-self-obliteration-of-yayoi-kusama/
https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/meet_the_artist/interview-yayoi-kusama-on-sixties-new-york-living-with-mental-illness-and-why-shes-never-thought-56560
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/works-by-the-much-loved-yayoi-kusama-return-to-the-hirshhorn-180979781/
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/yayoi-kusama
https://www.phillips.com/article/108269772/repetition-and-accumulation-7-things-you-need-to-know-about-yayoi-kusama
Videos and Documentary
Video Playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh4zYKaPKme5P5-UNf60in28ySK-wUorC
Documentary
Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama overcame impossible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the world stage. For decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from both her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, mental illness in a culture where that was particularly shameful and even continuing to pursue and be devoted to her art full time on the cusp of her 90s. In spite of it all, Kusama has endured and has created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry and literary fiction. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her installation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.
https://youtu.be/x8mdIB1WxHI
http://www.kusamamovie.com/
Books
Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/love-forever-yayoi-kusama-1958-1968_yayoi-kusama_laura-hoptman/9552957/item/11676908/?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZols38iu9Pk5L9EcWkRwRyQj1iDEmfwEie2gGk1Ld1HZR07CQ2n_6ZBhoCdTcQAvD_BwE#idiq=11676908&edition=8926727
Phaidon Yayoi Kusama - Revised and Expanded Edition Hardback Book
https://www.kathykuohome.com/Product/Detail/71033-Phaidon-Yayoi-Kusama-Revised-and-Expanded-Edition-Hardback-Book?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZolisqVK4JPUvroIr715CY5DEPdZWp7ujk5V6K4Q8NanIcc0Xdqd5HrBoCs2gQAvD_BwEInfinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusamahttps://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Net-Autobiography-Yayoi-Kusama/dp/1849762139/ref=asc_df_1849762139/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312138007830&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7662426563823962304&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007331&hvtargid=pla-452183887822&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=60258871097&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312138007830&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7662426563823962304&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007331&hvtargid=pla-452183887822