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Yayoi Kusama
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has pursued her principal themes of infinity, self-image, sexuality and compulsive repetition since she took the New York art world by storm in the late 1950s with her Infinity Nets -- heroically-scaled paintings covered in endlessly repeating net-like patterns, which won the admiration of artists ranging from Barnett Newman to Donald Judd. In Kusama's installations and sculptures she compulsively covers every surface, either in polka dots (Infinity Mirror Room, 1965); mirrors (Endless Love Show, 1966); or phallus-like protrusions (Violet Obsession, 1994, a vivid purple boat lined with stuffed forms).
This is the first monograph on the forty-year career of this distinguished, highly innovative artist, who represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993; it was published to coincide with an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London, January -- March 2000.
- GenresArtJapanNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 23, 2025
Un magnifique ouvrage en l'honneur de la rétrospective du travail de l'artiste, Yayoi Kusama à la Fondation Beyeler.
Bonsoir.
Bonsoir.
December 7, 2012
Kusama has been in the news lately with an exhibit at the Whitney and a commercial collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
This book, first published in 2000, obviously does not touch on her recent revival. But it provides a good history and overview of her artistic path, mostly through interviews: in her own words. There is even a lovely example of her poetry.
Her psychiatric problems and visions have been well documented, and seem to have been part of her relationship with the world from an early age. She is repetitve and obsessive in her work. Her 70's happenings in New York, often featuring naked performers, were both funny and biting. But they seem to have exhausted her, and she returned to Japan and making art with paint, fabric, plastic, music, words, and whatever else she could find to communicate her revelations.
It's hard for me not to like an artist who once walked around with a box full of faces she had cut from magazines.
She does have a sometimes irritating sense of self-importance. Perhaps that comes with the territory.
And if all of the art she produces does not fulfill her grandiose self-imaginings, it is nevertheless consistently curious, engaging, and provocative. Which seems more than good enough.
This book, first published in 2000, obviously does not touch on her recent revival. But it provides a good history and overview of her artistic path, mostly through interviews: in her own words. There is even a lovely example of her poetry.
Her psychiatric problems and visions have been well documented, and seem to have been part of her relationship with the world from an early age. She is repetitve and obsessive in her work. Her 70's happenings in New York, often featuring naked performers, were both funny and biting. But they seem to have exhausted her, and she returned to Japan and making art with paint, fabric, plastic, music, words, and whatever else she could find to communicate her revelations.
It's hard for me not to like an artist who once walked around with a box full of faces she had cut from magazines.
She does have a sometimes irritating sense of self-importance. Perhaps that comes with the territory.
And if all of the art she produces does not fulfill her grandiose self-imaginings, it is nevertheless consistently curious, engaging, and provocative. Which seems more than good enough.
March 1, 2014
Good book showing a deep understanding of the intentions of one of the 20th century's most cosmically inspired artists.
October 3, 2019
you can find me swimming through solace in infinity nets, don't bother me tho...
January 26, 2024
I thought I knew a bit about the artist Yayoi Kusama, from articles and photography of the art work over the years. But I didn’t. The scope, the avant- grade, the all encompassing vision is far more than I could imagine. And I resonated with a lot of the philosophical areas she spoke about on making art for herself, of being both wanting to be alive and knowing death shrouds it, on being the art as much as making it. It was an enlightening book.
February 16, 2017
We purchased while at the Benessee House, Naoshima, Japan.
When you walk toward the Benessee "Art Project" area: The installation, Pumpkin, Yayoi Kusama's iconic sculpture on Naoshima, an island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea is a popular area for tourists & visitors to take photos. Her yellow pumpkin, dotted in black, has become somehow the icon of Naoshima, the Japanese island transformed in a cradle of modern and contemporary art.
As other reviewers have said, this book has a general description of Kusama's works, her background, and where her work milieu stands in the world of modern art.
When you walk toward the Benessee "Art Project" area: The installation, Pumpkin, Yayoi Kusama's iconic sculpture on Naoshima, an island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea is a popular area for tourists & visitors to take photos. Her yellow pumpkin, dotted in black, has become somehow the icon of Naoshima, the Japanese island transformed in a cradle of modern and contemporary art.
As other reviewers have said, this book has a general description of Kusama's works, her background, and where her work milieu stands in the world of modern art.
December 22, 2016
Amazing. A beautiful look into a brilliant and sick mind of a Japanese woman. Yayoi Kusama is a mysterious artist, and with all the compilations of interviews, exerts from her poetry and fiction allows you to glimpse into her mind. Beautifully done.
August 1, 2011
I'm starting to see spots.... xo
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews