Yayoi Kusama Obsessional Art a Requiem for Death and Life

EARLY LIFE: Nippon

c.1939

Around the historic period of x, Kusama begins using polka dots and net motifs in her drawings, watercolours, pastels and oils. She later attributes this to a series of hallucinations, the event of a volatile family surroundings.

Yayoi Kusama, 1939 / Prototype courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

1948–49

At around 20, she leaves home to enter senior class at Kyoto Municipal Schoolhouse of Arts and Crafts, where she studies nihonga (Japanese-style painting); she graduates the following yr.

1950

A nihonga painting entitled Cat 1947 is selected for the Showtime Nagano Prefecture Exhibition.

1953

Kusama turns downward a place at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in order to devote fourth dimension to a solo exhibition in Tokyo.

1954

In February, Kusama holds her first Tokyo solo exhibition at Shirokiya Section Store. Her piece of work is featured on the encompass of the journal Mizue. A 2nd exhibition in Tokyo takes place at Mimatsu Shobo Gallery in August.

1955

Later on iii solo shows in the first three months of the twelvemonth in Tokyo, Kusama'southward work is included in the 'International Watercolor Exhibition: 18th Biennial' at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. In November, she begins corresponding with American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, sending her fourteen watercolours. She also sends work to Kenneth Callahan, a Seattle-based painter.

1956

Through Callahan, she secures a solo exhibition at Seattle's Dusanne Gallery. Confronting her family's wishes, Dr Shiho Nishimaru assists Kusama in obtaining a visa to let her to travel to the United states.

UNITED STATES

1957

In December, Kusama holds her first solo exhibition in the United States at Dusanne Gallery, Seattle.

1958

Kusama moves to New York in June, enrolling in the Art Students League of New York in order to obtain a student visa. She begins working on her 'Infinity Net' paintings. At this time, her grouping exhibitions include 'Modernistic Japanese Paintings' at the important artist-run Brata Gallery.

Kusama in her New York studio, c.1958–59 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

1959

Kusama debuts her net paintings, including Large White Internet 1958, in a group evidence at Boston'due south Nova Gallery in June. Her solo exhibition at Brata Gallery in Oct, featuring five big monochrome canvases, garners glowing reviews from artists and critics, including Sidney Tillim, Dore Ashton and Donald Judd, amidst others. Judd purchases a painting for $200, paid in iv instalments, and the two artists grow shut. Kusama holds some other two solo exhibitions at Nova Gallery in November and Dec.

1960

In March, Kusama begins her association with the European Avant-garde when she and Marking Rothko are the but artists from New York to exist represented in 'Monochrome Malerei', an international survey of gimmicky abstraction organised by Udo Kultermann at the Städtisches Museum in Leverkusen, Germany. Her work appears alongside artists of the Goose egg, Azimuth and Nouveau Réaliste groups (collectively known as New Tendencies); included among them are Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni and Günther Uecker. More than exhibitions follow on the U.s. east coast, and Kusama agrees to be represented by Stephen Radich in New York.

1961

Frank Stella purchases a 'Xanthous Net' painting from a solo exhibition at Stephen Radich Gallery, where Kusama also meets New Tendency creative person Henk Peeters of the Dutch Nul group. She moves her studio into the same building equally Donald Judd and sculptor Eva Hesse; Hesse becomes a shut friend. Further exhibitions follow in Europe — where she continues to be associated with New Tendencies — and in the The states, including the '1961 Whitney Annual' at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. From this time, Kusama is hospitalised regularly from overwork, and a concerned Georgia O'Keeffe convinces her ain dealer Edith Herbert to purchase several works in lodge to help Kusama stave off financial hardship.

Kusama in her New York studio, c.1961 / Epitome courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

1963

Kusama is granted permanent residency in the Us. Her exhibitions include 'Aggregation: One K Boats Prove' at Gertrude Stein Gallery in New York; this is the creative person's beginning installation to exploit the entire gallery space. Those impressed include Andy Warhol and critic Brian O'Doherty, who enthusiastically describes Kusama'south production of a work as both an object and an environs. Other shows see her exhibiting alongside Judd, Morris, Dan Flavin and Larry Poons in the U.s.a.; and Fontana, Klein, Manzoni, Peeters, Uecker and Dieter Roth in Europe.

Yayoi Kusama with 'Aggregation: 1 Thousand Boats Show', Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York, 1963 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1964

Kusama starts to include electric lights and mirrors in her installations. For the 'Driving Image Bear witness', she fills New York'south Castellane Gallery with 'Infinity Net' paintings, objects from her 'Accumulations' series, most works from the 'Assemblage: 1 Thou Boats Show', as well as macaroni-encrusted dresses and mannequins; even alive dogs are included. Elsewhere, she shows alongside Arman, Allan Kaprow and Marcel Duchamp, as well equally pop artists Warhol, Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann. She garners the critical support of Herbert Read and the New York Times; commercial attention, however, is limited, and her affliction returns.

1965

Kusama's financial circumstances are improved by a Rockefeller Foundation grant and her health improves in the company of artist On Kawara, with whom she shares a studio. Amongst numerous well-received exhibitions is November's 'Floor Prove' at Castellane Gallery, which features her showtime Infinity Mirror Room 1965, as well as stuffed shoes and a phallus-covered pram. At this time, Kusama also begins to stage her first happenings.

Yayoi Kusama with Infinity Mirror Room — Phalli'south Field, Castellane Gallery, New York, 1965 / Paradigm courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1966

'Driving Image Show' is exhibited at the Galleria d'Arte del Naviglio 2 in Milan, where she spends 2 months working in Lucio Fontana's studio. Back in New York in March, 'Kusama'southward Peep Show: Endless Love Prove' at Castellane Gallery is the first solo multimedia installation for the artist; hexagonal mirrors, flashing coloured lights, rock music and 'Beloved Forever' badges brand up the installation. Fontana funds the production of Narcissus Garden 1966 — 1500 silver assurance gathered on a lawn at the Venice Biennale in June. In an attempt to both appoint viewers and critique the commercialism of the art earth, Kusama sells the balls for 1200 lira ($ii) each; she is stopped by Biennale authorities who object to the artist selling her work 'like hot dogs or ice cream cones'. Other works are exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 'The Object Transformed' and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Critic Lucy Lippard proclaims Kusama a precursor to 'eccentric abstraction'.

From left to right:
Yayoi Kusama with Narcissus Garden, Venice Biennale, 1966 / Paradigm courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.
14th Street Happening, 1966 / Prototype courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.
Walking Slice, 1966 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1967

Kusama stages a happening at Black Gate Theatre in New York. Entitled Cocky-obliteration, information technology features an environment of mannequins and walls covered in polka dots, all under black light — participants are encouraged to draw dots on each other in fluorescent paint. Similar events, which she describes equally 'body festivals' are staged in parks in New York and at the Chrysler Art Museum in Provincetown and the New Tendencies-allied Galerie Orez in The Hague. Polka-dotted naked men at a happening at a Dutch educatee jazz club atomic number 82 to police closure of the venue, as well as tabloid please. Kusama declares that 'the body is art' in a flyer for the Provincetown event.

1968

The picture Kusama'southward Self-obliteration 1968, documenting the happenings of the previous yr, is screened in New York and telecast in Europe. The newly formed Kusama International Moving-picture show Production Company is set up to aid distribution, simply the company faces censorship laws in the promotion of Kusama's films. Kusama's happenings grow arguably more radical, as the creative person'due south 'The Anatomic Explosion' demonstrates; featuring public nudity, they are staged throughout New York together with protests confronting the war in Vietnam, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and capitalism generally. Lippard includes the creative person in 'Soft and Plain Soft Sculpture', an exhibition too featuring the work of Hesse, Louise Conservative, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra and others. Kusama presides over the happening Homosexual Nuptials at the Church building of Self-obliteration in Walker Street in New York, and performs alongside Fleetwood Mac and Land Joe and the Fish at the Fillmore East, New York City. Sensational reportage of these events reaches Japan and causes further friction within Kusama's family.

Mode shoot on a New York rooftop, 1968 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1969

The happening Chiliad Orgy to Awaken the Dead takes place in the sculpture garden of New York's Museum of Modern Fine art and receives widespread press coverage; additional happenings and performances have place throughout the twelvemonth. Other activities include publicly supporting hippy provocateur Louis Abolifia'south mayoral campaign by staging a happening in Central Park, and establishing a fashion label selling dresses and textiles out of a boutique on Sixth Artery.

1970

She returns to Nihon for a three-month visit, during which time she is a frequent guest on Japanese goggle box. She is also arrested during a happening in Tsukuji.

1971

Kusama stages a series of street happenings and fashion shows throughout Europe.

1973

Post-obit the death of her partner Joseph Cornell, Kusama returns to Japan in declining wellness. She intends to stay in Nihon only a brusk time, but is living there permanently by 1975.

1974

Kusama turns her attention to ceramics, watercolours, pastels and collage and begins to write poetry. She participates in 'Woman's Work: American Art 1974' at the Museum of Philadelphia Civic Eye in Apr. Kusama'southward father, Kamon, dies in June.

1975

Kusama is hospitalised at Seiwa Hospital in Tokyo's Shinjuku district. She attempts to settle scandalous accounts of her work in an essay entitled 'The struggle and wanderings of my soul' published in Geijutsu Seikatsu (Fine art Life). In December, Tokyo'southward Nishimura Gallery hosts 'Message of Death from Hades', an exhibition of new collages and Kusama's beginning since returning to Nippon. The exhibition attracts the attending of young poet and curator Akira Tatehata.

1976

New 2- and iii-dimensional works are profiled in 'Obsessional Fine art, A Requiem for Decease and Life' at Osaka Formes Gallery in Baronial, while in December Kusama participates in exhibitions at several New York galleries and, as a quondam Brata Gallery artist, in '10th Street Days: The Co-ops of the 50s'.

1978

Kusama'due south first novel Manhattan Suicide Addict is published by Kousakusha in March. For the next few years, her merely exhibitions of new work are modest showings in Japan; her presence in the The states is limited to collection-based shows.

First edition of Manhattan Suicide Addict, 1978 / Epitome courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1981

Kusama is one of 30 artists included in the major survey 'The 1960s: A Decade of Alter in Contemporary Japanese Art' at the National Museum of Modernistic Art, in both Tokyo and Kyoto.

1982

A solo exhibition at Fuji Television Gallery in Tokyo, comprising some xxx works, is the offset in Nihon to show Kusama'due south paintings and sculptures from the 1950s and 1960s. A solo exhibition is also held at Milan's Naviglio Gallery, which features a photograph of Narcissus Garden at the 1966 Venice Biennale.

1983

Galerie Ornis, The Hague, includes 42 works in 'Yayoi Kusama: 1950–1970'. Kusama's work is also included in the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Fine art's inaugural drove exhibition. Published in Jan, Kusama's second novel The Hustler'due south Grotto of Christopher Street wins Yasei Jidai magazine's Tenth Literary Award for New Writers.

1985

In April, the artist conducts a performance at Tokyo's Joshinji Temple, while her third novel, The Burning of St Mark's Church appears in May. Chair 1962 appears in the of import 'Reconstructions: Avant-Garde Fine art in Nihon 1945–1965' at the Museum of Modernistic Art, Oxford.

1986

A showing at the Musée Municipal, in Dole, French republic, is the first international exhibition to concentrate on Kusama's output from the 1980s, while Chair 1962 is included in the Pompidou'southward extensive survey 'Japon des Avant Gardes 1910–70'. Her book Yayoi Kusama: Driving Image is published in June.

1987

Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art in Fukuoka launches Kusama's start major retrospective, comprising 79 works from the 1940s to the 1980s.

1988

The novel Betwixt Heaven and Globe is chop-chop followed by Woodstock Phallus Cutter, while new 3-dimensional works announced in 'Yayoi Kusama: Soul Burning Flashes' at Fuji Television Gallery in Tokyo.

REAPPRAISAL

1990

The novel Angels in Cape Cod is published in February. The artist as well designs a gasbag airship for an exhibition in Paris.

1991

Kusama conducts a Self-Obliteration event in front of the Sony Edifice in Ginza, in Tokyo, roofing the unabridged infinite, including spectators and journalists, with polka dots. She shows 23 new paintings and sculptures at the Fuji Television set Gallery, while her ninth novel, The Foxgloves of Central Park, is published in April. She finishes the twelvemonth by starring in the film Tokyo Decadence, written and directed by Ryu Murakami.

Mirror Room (Pumpkin), inside view, Hara Museum of Contemporary Fine art, Nihon, 1991 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1992

Kusama'south 10th novel, Lost in Swampland, appears in January, while a volume of print works is published in May. Sogetsu Art Museum, in Tokyo, hosts the retrospective 'Yayoi Kusama: Bursting Galaxies'.

1993

At the invitation of Akira Tatehata, Kusama becomes the first artist to bear witness solo at the Japanese Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale. The exhibition brings together important early works from the 1950s, large-calibration sculptures and paintings from the 1980s, besides equally more recent works. The artist conducts a operation alongside Mirror Room (Pumpkin) during the vernissage in June. The novel New York Story also appears in June. In July, Kusama collaborates with British musician Peter Gabriel on an installation in Yokohama.

Portrait of Yayoi Kusama at Tokyo Bay, 1993 / Photograph: Yuichi Hiruta / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

1995

Kusama begins working with Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo; in July, she presents a solo exhibition called 'Yayoi Kusama: I Who Committed Suicide' and, in September, she participates in a grouping photography exhibition. Paula Cooper Gallery includes a 1961 'Red Net' painting in its booth for the New York Art Fair.

1996

The exhibition 'Yayoi Kusama: The 1950s and 1960s: Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper' at Paula Cooper Gallery confirms the reappraisal — in the Usa — of the artist every bit a major figure in the American postwar Avant-garde; the exhibition garners rave reviews and attracts the American branch of the International Association of Art Critics' award for Best Gallery Show for 1995–96. The honour is repeated when an exhibition of contempo works at New York's Robert Miller Gallery is named Best Gallery Show for 1996–97, confirming the continued forcefulness of Kusama's do. Kusama's balloon works make their first advent as a commission for Pittsburgh's The Mattress Factory for the exhibition 'All the Room'due south a Stage'.

1997

Kusama is featured on the cover of the February issue of the major art journal Artforum. The artist stages over a dozen exhibitions during the year, including a showing of recent piece of work at Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles.

1998

An intensive yr of exhibiting — more than thirty shows — includes participation in the São Paulo and Taipei biennales; solo presentations of new work in New York, Tokyo, London and Paris; and the opening of the survey 'Dearest Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958–1968' at the Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art. The exhibition tours to New York's Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Tokyo'due south Museum of Gimmicky Art. The novel Violet Obsession is published in July, and several books are translated into English.

2000

Kusama contributes a balloon piece of work and Infinity Mirror Room 1965/1998 to the Biennale of Sydney. A major volume on her life and piece of work is published by Phaidon Press, and features an in-depth interview past curator Akira Tatehata.

2000

Kusama contributes a balloon work and Infinity Mirror Room 1965/1998 to the Biennale of Sydney. A major volume on her life and work is published by Phaidon Press, and features an in-depth interview by curator Akira Tatehata.

Kusama, 2000 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

2002

Matsumoto City Museum of Art in Kusama'due south habitation town presents a retrospective exhibition, which covers all aspects of the artist'southward practice and draws together more 280 works. Kusama is one of iii senior artists (the others are Nam June Paik and Lee Ufan) featured in 'APT 2002: The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' at the Queensland Art Gallery. A selection of historical and recent works is included in APT 2002 — Narcissus garden 1966/2000 and a new site-specific installation Soul under the moon 2002 — and the creative person's Kids' APT project The obliteration room is tremendously well received. Kusama produces her first bloom sculpture for Kirishima Open up Air Museum, and Infinity Cyberspace: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama is get-go published (in Japanese).

Narcissus garden 1966/2002, as part of 'APT 2002: Asia Pacific Triennial of Gimmicky Art', Queensland Fine art Gallery, 2002

2003

For the 2d Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, in the rural hinterlands of Niigata province, Kusama exhibits a ten-metre-broad flower sculpture on a small loma in Matsudai; she also opens a boutique in the same town and stages a fashion show during the exhibition. Another flower sculpture is produced for the French city of Lille, and she is awarded France'southward Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Tsumari in Bloom, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Matsudai, Niigata, 2003 / / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

2005

Kusama collaborates with graf media to design a cafe for the 2nd Yokohama Triennale.

2006

Kusama creates a four-metre-alpine blood-red pumpkin for the 'Naoshima Standard Exhibition', while her public piece of work for the Singapore Biennale is installed in busy shopping areas. She receives two Japanese Lifetime Achievement Awards: The Order of the Rising Dominicus (Gold Rays with Rosette) and the Nippon Art Association's Praemium Imperiale (painting).

Red Pumpkin, Naoshima Ferry Terminal, 2006 / Epitome courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

2007

Kusama engages in numerous exhibitions, equally well equally mode and public fine art projects during the twelvemonth. She also 'obliterates with dots' the Japanese comedian–actor–director Takeshi Kitano on national television.

2008

The retrospective 'Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years' opens at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The netherlands, before travelling to Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Urban center Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, in 2009–x. The artist likewise exhibits at the Liverpool Biennial, and the documentary I Adore Myself is released on DVD in Japan. Despite the global financial crisis, No. ii 1959, a white cyberspace painting formerly owned by Judd, fetches United states$v 792 000 at auction in New York, the highest ever render for a work by a female artist.

2010

The video Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict is shown at the 2010 Biennale of Sydney. Two of Kusama's flowers are included in Nihon's Aichi Triennale, and the artist is deputed to design a Town Sneaker-model bus, which she titles Mizutama Ranbu (Wild Polka Dot Trip the light fantastic toe), whose road travels through her habitation town of Matsumoto.

Kusama in her studio, Tokyo, Japan, December 2010 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

2011

The retrospective 'Yayoi Kusama' opens at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, travelling to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Fine art in New York. A three-hour special on the artist is broadcast on Japan's NHK in Baronial and, in Oct, the English language-language version of Infinity Cyberspace: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama is first published past Tate Publishing, London. 'Yayoi Kusama: Await Now, Run across Forever' opens at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane in November.

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Source: https://play.qagoma.qld.gov.au/looknowseeforever/timeline/

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