Yayoi Kusama

Key facts

Born

1929, Japanese^[2]

Movements

• Contemporary
• Minimalism
• Pop Art

^[2]

Works held in

9 museums^[8]

Plan your visit to see Yayoi Kusama →

• How did yayoi kusama became famous?+

  Yayoi Kusama became part of the avant-garde in New York. She staged naked happenings, created infinity net paintings, and produced immersive mirrored environments.
• Is yayoi kusama still alive?+

  Yes, Yayoi Kusama is still alive (born 1929^[2]).
• Is yayoi kusama still making art?+

  Yayoi Kusama makes a lot of different types of art. Her spotted creations include paintings, sculptures, performances, and installations.
• What is yayoi kusama best known for?+

  Yayoi Kusama is known for regularly working with mirrors and bright colours. She creates repeating patterns of things such as dots and pumpkins.
• What is Yayoi Kusama's most famous work?+

  Yayoi Kusama, often called the "princess of polka dots", is a Japanese^[2] artist known for her wide range of art, including paintings, sculptures, performances, and installations. Much of her work incorporates hundreds, even thousands, of dots. Her "infinity mirror rooms", installations that she began creating in the 1960s, are among her most recognised works. These mirrored rooms, filled with dotted objects or lights, create a sense of infinite space through endless reflections. One such installation, "Peep Show/Endless Love Show" (1966^[2]), featured a hexagonal mirrored room with pulsing lights; viewers could peer inside through small windows. These installations exhibit her signature polka dots, here in the form of round lightbulbs. Kusama's work often explores themes of cosmic infinity and obsessive excess. In 2014, an exhibition of her dotted installations attracted more visitors than any other exhibition worldwide. Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, and in 2017, she opened a museum dedicated to her art in Tokyo.
• What should I know about Yayoi Kusama's prints?+

  Yayoi Kusama's prints, like those of many artists, exist as limited editions. The artist decides the size of the edition, and this is not dictated by technical limitations of the printmaking process itself. Each print in an edition does not have to be produced in a single session. Instead, the edition is defined by a written claim, typically in pencil, at the foot of the print. These claims follow informal conventions used by printmakers. Though not legally binding, these conventions are widely respected. Claims and descriptions are subject to the Trade Descriptions Act 1968^[2] Section 2, which requires truthful descriptions of the artwork. A printmaker typically marks each print with a fraction (print number over edition number), the print's title in the centre, and their signature on the right. All edition descriptions are signed in pencil.
• What style or movement did Yayoi Kusama belong to?+

  Yayoi Kusama (born 1929^[2]) is a Japanese^[2] artist who has worked in a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, performance, film, printmaking, installation, environmental art, literature, fashion, and product design. Kusama studied Nihonga painting in Kyoto. In the late 1950s, she moved to New York, where she was inspired by Abstract Expressionism. She socialised with artists such as Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, and Claes Oldenburg. Kusama is often classed as a Conceptualist; however, she does not think her work can be easily labelled. Her work explores her identity as a female artist in a male-dominated society, as a Japanese artist in the Western art world, and her personal neuroses. Kusama gained attention for organising happenings in which naked people were painted with polka dots, a prominent motif in her art. She calls these dots ‘infinity nets’ and states that they come directly from the hallucinations she has experienced since childhood. Since 1973^[2], Kusama has lived and worked in Japan. In 2017, she opened a museum dedicated to her work in Tokyo.
• What techniques or materials did Yayoi Kusama use?+

  Yayoi Kusama's artistic practice involves diverse materials and techniques. In 1957^[2], she created her first "achromes" using cloth soaked in kaolin and glue. By 1959, she was using sewing-machine seams for the "achromes". The next year, she experimented with cotton-wool and expanded polystyrene, as well as phosphorescent materials and cobalt chloride, which changed colour over time. In 1961, Kusama worked with straw and plastic, creating white paintings with balls made of cotton-wool or fur, and clouds of natural or artificial fibres. She also produced a sculpture using rabbit skin. In 1959, Kusama prepared "air bodies" (pneumatic sculptures), and in 1960, she realised a sculpture in space: a suspended sphere supported by an air jet. She also created bodies of pure light, spheroids held up by an air jet. Around the same time, she produced her first lines, eventually creating one measuring 7200 metres in 1960 in Herning, Denmark. Kusama also worked with unconventional materials, such as hard-boiled eggs, which she signed with her finger-prints at conventions in Copenhagen and Milan in 1960.
• What was Yayoi Kusama known for?+

  Yayoi Kusama, born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929^[2], is known for her diverse artistic output. She explores themes of identity, memory, and hallucination through painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, performance, film, printmaking, installation, environmental art, literature, fashion, and product design. After studying Nihonga painting in Kyoto, Kusama moved to New York in the late 1950s. There, she was inspired by Abstract Expressionism and associated with artists such as Donald Judd and Andy Warhol. Kusama gained attention for her 'happenings', in which she painted naked people with brightly coloured polka dots. Polka dots became a prominent motif in her work, which she calls 'infinity nets', and which she says derive from childhood hallucinations. One of her earliest uses of the motif was in a drawing made at age ten, depicting a woman in a dot-patterned kimono. Since 1973^[2], after returning to Japan, Kusama has worked with mirrors and lights to evoke her hallucinations. She has also created 'infinity mirror rooms', mirrored rooms filled with dotted objects or lights. The mirrored reflections create the illusion of endless space. Kusama opened a museum in Tokyo in 2017 dedicated to her work. She considers pumpkins a form of self-portrait.
• When did Yayoi Kusama live and work?+

  Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929^[2]. She is a contemporary artist who emerged in the Japanese^[2] art scene during a period of significant change. Kusama participated in the 10th Yomiuri Independents exhibition in Tokyo in March 1958^[2]. She was involved with the First Neo Dadaism Organisers group in Tokyo in April 1960. Kusama moved to New York City, where she became part of the avant-garde art movement. Her work gained recognition through various exhibitions, including the Boxes show at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles (February 1964), and participation in the 34th Venice Biennale (June 1968). Kusama's art has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum. She continues to work and exhibit her art internationally.
• Where can I see Yayoi Kusama's work?+

  Yayoi Kusama's work can be viewed in many locations worldwide. In the United States, major museums holding her pieces include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all in New York City. Other American museums include the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia), and the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh). In Europe, Kusama's art can be seen at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the Graphische Sammlung Albertina (Vienna), the Kunstmuseum (Bern and Lucerne), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebaek, Denmark), the Moderna Museet (Malmö and Stockholm), and the Museum am Ostwall (Dortmund). In the UK, visit the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford), the Tate Modern (London), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Manchester Art Gallery, and the National Museums of Scotland (Edinburgh).
• Where was Yayoi Kusama from?+

  Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Nagano, in Japan. Her early exposure to the Japanese^[2] art scene is evident through her participation in several national exhibitions during the 1960s. These included the Fourth Annual Contemporary^[2] Art Exhibition of Japan in Tokyo (1960^[2]), the Fifth Annual Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan in Tokyo (1962), and the Sixth Annual Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan in Tokyo (1964). Kusama also exhibited in 'New Generation of Japanese Sculptors' at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1963). Later, her work was included in 'Trends in Contemporary Japanese Painting and Sculpture' at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (1966), and '1964: A Turning Point in Japanese Art' at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1996).