Yayoi Kusama is an 82-year-old Japanese avant-garde artist known for her obsession with dots, and more recently, for her collaborative designs with Louis Vuitton. These large sculptures are Fiberglass reinforced plastic, metal and all-weather urethane paint, from her series Flowers that Bloom at Midnight and Flowers that Bloom Tomorrow. (The one above, for example, is approximately 71 x 71 x 105 inches )
Kusama, who lives in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, pictured at her recent exhibition at Tate Modern
-Size: each, approximately 190 x 78 x 79 inches
-At Sotheby’s Beyond Limits, 9-foot-tall flower
-From her exhibit in Queensland, Australia
-An intro Kusama video, issued by Louis Vuitton when the fashion collaboration was announced.
-From the Fractal Art blog
-At Victoria Miro, from Azito, the Japanese online journal of contemporary art.
Kusama was born in Japan and moved to New York in 1957, where she became associated with the abstract expressionist movement. In the sixties, she got into pop art and famously organized a series of “Body Festivals” where she painted nude participants with polka dots. She moved back to Japan in 1973 and has been voluntarily living in a mental hospital since 1977, where she has continued to make visual art and sculpture as well as publish several novels, a poetry collection, and an autobiography. – From New York Fashion’s article on Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton
Kusama’s website is here.
An excellent website on Kusama, by Louis Vuitton, here.
Categories: Sculpture
Canadian Art Junkie 
I went to the exhibition at Tate that was quite interesting. I particularly enjoyed the last room that was an immersion into her polka dot-obsessed universe!
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I can imagine the intensity of an immersion like that! Sounds excellent.
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Emotions are best expressed through a flower. This is a universal symbol of committed friendship, bond and love. A present of freshly cut bunch of flowers and fragrance that comes with very sniff is worth a thousand words.
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That’s so true, about friendship and love. Thank you.
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loved the outdoor one.
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Yes, and outside is probably where you’re most able to appreciate them, because their proportions would be more in keeping with surroundings.
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Thanks for sharing this with us. I love to hear about and see the work of new artists so she is a treat.
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You’re welcome. What a fascinating life she leads.
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Fascinating, inspiring, beautiful. I think you’re saying I can see some of this at Tate Modern? If so, groovy – I’m going s-o-o-o-o-n (dotty, ya get me?). Living in a mental hospital voluntarily… bizarre and intriguing…
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Thanks for the comment Pegs, not sure the Tate exhibit is still on. Check out her exhibits page for all dates: http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/exhibitions/00.html
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One of my favourite artists.
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I knew so little about her, just her name and her obsession, before I did this post. She’s an incredible force, and her other works captivated me as well.
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Truly an iconic artist.
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