Yayoi Kusama

by Robert Shore

Nonagenarian Japanese artist is simultaneously one of the most famous and most mysterious artists on the planet. A wild child of the 1950s and 1960s, she emerged out of the international Fluxus movement to launch naked happenings in New York and went on to become a doyenne of that city's counter-cultural scene. In the early 1970s, she returned to Japan and by 1977 had checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital which has remained her home to this day. But, though she was removed from the world, she was definitely not in retirement. Her love and belief in the polka dot has given birth to some of the most surprising and inspiring installations and paintings of the last four decades – and made her exhibitions the most visited of any single living artist.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Art

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Robert Shore is a journalist, author and playwright. He is the editor of Elephant Magazine, a quarterly magazine on contemporary art and visual culture. He lives with his wife and young son, and is from Mansfield, in the Midlands.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an interesting mini-biography summarizing Kusama's life and legacy. Much of it reads like a series of data points, which is okay for such a small book. Shore does a great job at emphasizing how strategic Kusama was in the early years of her career. She actively sought out powerful and influential figures in the art world who she believed would help her.

I was first introduced to Kusama's work during a visit to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art where her "Retrospective" was on display. The exhibit didn't really focus on her life, so engaging with this book provided me with the missing context I needed to appreciate her work.

I guessed that Kusama struggled with schizophrenia but I had no idea to what degree it affected her life. She frequently hallucinated, organized large orgies where she would provide heroin for everyone, almost never smiled, and spent most of her later years living in a hospital. While aesthetically she is largely remembered for her iconic polkadots, Shore's biography highlights how crucial she was in leading the "nudification" of American culture in the 1960's. Kusama was on a mission to ban clothing and staged a series of nude public events all over the world that landed her in prison. I really think this is the "academic edge" that justifies Kusama as a noteworthy figure. She was a part of the inner 1960's art world (she was friends with O'Keefe and Warhol, to name a few), was politically active in the counter culture, and was a major figure in the sexual liberalization of the West during the 1960's.

Overall, Kusama is an interesting figure worth studying who will likely be remembered as a secondary or tangential leader of the counterculture.

[Larisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about Yayoi Kusama’s life and her journey into becoming the artist she is today. The biggest highlight to me was that she never went away from her style just to fit in with the trends and that’s what makes her work so powerful. I’ll appreciate her exhibitions even more now.

[Bo van Engelen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interessant boekje om meer over Yayoi Kusama te leren, maar wel heel erg opsommend. Het had van mij wat verhalender gekund in plaats van een opsomming van haar tentoonstellingen, kunstwerken en een paar quotes.

[Tabish Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yayoi Kusama is an art superstar, now well known for her selfie friendly infinity mirror rooms that people queue up for hours to see.

But how did she get here and where did it all begin? This book takes us through her life from childhood where he obsession with creating art began, via her time in New York alongside the likes of Andy Warhol, through to her later years when she's had a recent resurgence.

This helpful summary gets right what a lot of artist biographies get wrong: it's short - under 200 pages, it's not littered with artspeak - I only saw one use of the word liminal, it can be read by anyone - not just art academics, and it's pocket sized so you can carry it around while travelling.

The small size does mean we don't get many pictures, aside from a few dozen in the central pages, but a quick visit to Instagram will fill you in on what her works look like.

There's not much more I could have asked for in a biography of Kusama.

[Evelyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This short pedantic biography is merely a recitation of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s life and work with some pertinent quotes interspersed when discussing relevant events. It reads like an extended version of a magazine article describing the artist and her work. It provides no insights into the artist or her orb. Even the illustrations in the book lack relevance as they are mostly photos of historic events or newspaper headlines and not photographs of her major artwork.

Anyone seeking to learn about the artist and her work, including insights into the psychology behind it, would be better served by reading the catalog from the Tate exhibition of Kusama’s work, “Yayoi Kusama” by Frances Morris than by reading this book.

It rates 1.5 stars.

[Vilma Balciauskaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kai pasimetu bėgime, kai mintys taip užveltos, kad neberandu siūlo galo, kai "reikia" aplenkia "noriu", imu kvėpavimą ir paleidimą. Dar ir ko nors ekstravagantiško, spalvoto ir su taškiukais. Kusamos istorija - labai gerai 🐆🍪🍄🍏

[Priyanka]

A fearless yet way too fearful woman. That's what makes her Yayoi Kusama.

What I learnt from this book:
1. Be shameless
2. Keep your eyes on the prize
3. Flow

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the writing
5 stars for Yayoi and how sensational she truly is

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. Stopped at Chapter 5 and couldn’t finish further.

[Kl · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a quarter through, it pretty much just goes on to list the galleries, curators and shows she had done. Minimal analysis of character.

[Betty-Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a life Yayoi Kusama had. Roller coaster of a read.

[Dani Lianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I did a project about Yayoi Kusama I got really interested in her story. I really liked getting to know her story more but it wasn't a book I enjoyed reading, it was just an interesting book.