“If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago.”
Kusama (22 March 1929 – 14 August 2026) trained in a formal style of Japanese painting called Nihonga, which was popular during the Meiji period (1868–1912) as a way of revitalising Japanese traditions and deflecting the influence of Western art. In 1958, her interest in the international art scene led Kusama to make a new home in New York.
Kusama’s work from this time is best remembered as the beginning of the Infinity Nets series of paintings, vast canvases measuring up to 33 feet in length, entirely covered in small, thickly painted loops representing infinity. Influenced by childhood hallucinations of dots and nets, this theme became prominent throughout Kusama’s career. The sheer scale and scope of Kusama’s work embeds itself in the viewer’s memory, and her art is as much experienced as it is seen.
As one of Japan’s most prominent artists, she worked in a wide variety of media including painting, collage, sculpture, performance art and numerous public and private installations.
During the 1960s, Kusama rubbed shoulders with the likes of Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell and Claes Oldenburg.
Kusama’s work became known for being provocative and, as part of her anti-war protests against the Vietnam War, she wrote an open letter to Richard Nixon offering him vigorous sex if he would put a stop to the war.
In 2012, she collaborated with Louis Vuitton’s creative director Marc Jacobs on the collection “LOUIS VUITTON × YAYOI KUSAMA”. Kusama’s genius has been exhibited all over the planet.
Kusama lived openly with mental illness throughout much of her life, with the hallucinations she experienced from childhood becoming deeply connected to her visual language. In 1977, she voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she lived while continuing to work from her nearby studio. Art remained a constant throughout her life, with Kusama continuing to paint until her final days.
Want to learn more about Yayoi Kusama?
"Since my childhood, I have always made works with polka dots. Earth, moon, sun and human beings all represent dots; a single particle among billions." ~ Yayoi Kusama
Back
