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Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan’s most important contemporary artists. Experience her legendary 65-year career through multi-reflective installations, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and ephemera. Immerse in the infinite.

June 30 – September 10, 2017
#InfiniteKusama

infinity rooms

In 1965, Kusama began utilizing mirrors to transcend the physical limitations of her own productivity and achieve the repetition that is crucial to her paintings and Accumulations. Sculptural, architectural, and performative, these installations blur the line between artistic disciplines and create a participatory experience by casting the visitor as the subject of the work.

accumulations

Kusama began making the Accumulations or “soft sculptures” in the early 1960s. They serve as important precursors to her Infinity Mirror Rooms. These works point to a crucial development that eventually transformed her process-based production from physical repetition to photographic reproduction to instantaneous reflection.

“I am deeply interested in trying to understand the relationship between people, society, and nature; and my work is forged from accumulations of these frictions.”

Accumulation, 1962–64.

paintings

Kusama’s paintings embody the motifs echoed often throughout her work, giving evidence to the singular vision that has driven her over the course of her long career. Colors and patterns pulsate within the bordered spaces of her canvases. She was determined to incite experiences of immersion and boundlessness even in two dimensions.

Searching for Love, 2013.

works on paper

Kusama’s works on paper first garnered attention in the United States in 1957, when she was the subject of a solo exhibition at Zoë Dusanne Gallery in Seattle. These early drawings are intimate, organic microcosms that the artist later expanded on in her Infinity Mirror Rooms.

Sources: Kusama, Yayoi. Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2011. Mika Yoshitake, “Infinity Mirrors: Doors or Perception,” in Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors, ed. Mika Yoshitake. Washington DC, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Delmonico Books • Prestel, 2017.

Images: Yayoi Kusama with recent works in Tokyo, 2016, Courtesy of the artist, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Tomoaki Makino. Infinity Mirrored Room—All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirror, plastic, black glass, LED, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore and Victoria Miro, London, © YAYOI KUSAMA. Infinity Mirrored Room—Love Forever, 1966/1994, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirrors, metal, and lightbulbs, 82 ¾ x 94 ½ x 80 ¾ in., Collection of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore. The Obliteration Room, 2002 to present, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, furniture, white paint, and dot stickers, dimensions variable, Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery, Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia, Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012, Collection: Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: QAGOMA Photography. Infinity Mirrored Room—Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, LED, black glass, and aluminum, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA. Dots Obsession—Love Transformed into Dots, 2007, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, mixed media installation, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Cathy Carver. Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, sewn stuffed cotton fabric, board, and mirrors, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Cathy Carver. Yayoi Kusama reclining on Accumulation No. 2 (1962), 1962, visible in background are Accumulation of Faces No. 2 (1962) and posters for Tentoonstelling Nul at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, and Recent Painting: Yayoi Kusama at Stephen Radich Gallery, New York, 1961, Photo: Hal Reiff. Accumulation, 1962–64, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, sewn and stuffed fabric with paint on wood chair frame, 34 ½ x 38 x 33 in., The Rachofsky Collection and the Dallas Museum of Art through the DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund. Searching for Love, 2013, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, acrylic on canvas, Collection of Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London, ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Infinity-Nets, 2005, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, acrylic on canvas, 76 ½ x 76 ½ in., Collection of Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki. Kusama with Zoë Dusanne at her solo exhibition at the Dusanne Gallery, Seattle, December 1957. Pacific Ocean, 1959, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, watercolor on paper, 22 ½ x 27 ⅜ in., Takahashi Collection, Tokyo. The World of Insect, 1953, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, ink, gouache, and pastel on paper, 8 ¾ x 7 ⅝ in., Collection of the artist.

"Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity." – Yayoi Kusama