Yayoi Kusama

 

“My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering with them… 

They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe.” 

 Yayoi Kusama

I am spotlighting Yayoi Kusama for both Women's History Month and Disability Awareness Month. I am pretty sure I was first introduced to Yayoi Kusama via an Talk Art episode where another artist mentioned her but I have no idea what episode that would have been. LOL 

Important Note:

In googling Yayoi Kusama I learned there is an on going conversation over several racist and problematic comments she has made over her lifetime. Ex Yayoi Kusama Apologizes as Her Previous Racist Writings Surface, Clouding Her New San Francisco Museum Show from 2023.

While I am spotlighting Yayoi Kusama for her contributions

Neither I nor this blog are condoning any racism or racist language

Nor am I condoning any other isms or phobias.

We should be working to uproot all isms and phobias 

No matter where we find them

Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese modern artist born in 1929, is known for her conceptual art, which incorporates autobiographical, psychological, and sexual themes. Her work is rooted in feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism. Kusama is the most successful living artist globally, the top-selling female artist, and one of the most significant living artists from Japan. Her work has influenced artists like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.

At ten, Kusama experienced vivid hallucinations, including flashes of light, auras, and dense fields of dots. These hallucinations included flowers and fabric patterns, which she called "self-obliteration." Kusama's art became her escape from her family and mind, and she was fascinated by the smooth white stones covering the river bed near her family home. This fascination with dots was a seminal influence on her artistic career.

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 uses painting as a way to express her mental health issues, stating that she struggles with pain, anxiety, and fear daily. She believes that creating art has helped her find a path to live, as it allows her to cope with her illness.