Yayoi Kusama: Life and Work: Early Years, Biography and the Genesis of Infinity Points
Discover the fascinating biography of Yayoi Kusama, from her childhood in Japan and personal challenges to her arrival in New York and the emergence of her iconic 'Infinity Nets'.
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Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist self-declared 'obsessive artist', known for her extensive use of polka dots and her infinite installations.
She utilizes various visual art forms to express herself, employing painting, sculpture, performances, and installations in a variety of styles, including Pop Art and Minimalism.
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Biography of Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama was born in Japan in the city of Matsumoto on March 22, 1929, in a traditional middle-class family and, according to the artist, quite repressive, her mother even destroyed her drawings, but she recognized that they were what saved her from suicide.
The artist suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and hallucinations since childhood, the mental disorders of the girl translated into art and the creation of a very particular visual identity.
She declared: "My first consultation with a psychiatrist at the time, I was a child, still well he understood art and helped me a lot with that. With his encouragement, I began to fight against my disease; although, in my case, the cure is in creating art based on the disease".
Developing my creativity was my cure — explains the artist in an interview.
Considered one of the greatest names of contemporary art and also an icon of fashion, the princess of polka dots, as she is known, transposes to screens, clothes, videos, sculptures transforming the psychedelic forms and colors she sees in her hallucinations; above all, of course, the famous polka dots.
Producing means channeling my ideas and staying alive.
In the late 1950s, she begins to work on one of her most celebrated series, "Infinity Obsession" (Obsessive Infinity).
The artist says: "Living in a country at war, I spent my youth in the darkness of a militarized Japan. Feeling limited, I went in search of a wider place, a world where I could express myself, feel free. Then, I went to the United States."
The artist arrived in New York in 1957. There, she met and interacted with artists such as Donald Judd, Joseph Cornell, and Andy Warhol. She began performing some performances, using naked people covered with her unmistakable polka dots. The idea was to celebrate freedom and free love.
From the 2000s onwards, she began to hold the first major international exhibitions, including Brazil with the exhibition "Obsessive Infinity" in several cities in the country.
Yayoi Kusama lived in the United States from 1957 to 1973, a period in which she produced the work for which she is best known. She has lived in Japan for over 30 years, on her own initiative, in a psychiatric institution in Tokyo.
To understand the rest of this journey, continue in our next article: Yayoi Kusama: Life and Work: Immersive Installations, Global Recognition, and Notable Collaborations.
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