Yayoi KusamaYayoi Kusama - Tsumari in Bloom
About the Item
- Creator:Yayoi Kusama (1929, Japanese)
- Dimensions:Height: 40.95 in (104 cm)Width: 40.95 in (104 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:BRUCE, AU
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1918214380572
Yayoi Kusama
Widely inspirational and innovative artist Yayoi Kusama has a body of work that is exceptionally varied, ranging from graphic prints and paintings to polka-dot pumpkin sculptures, hypnotic collages, large-scale installations and fashion design.
Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve likely experienced Kusama’s art — or have seen it on Instagram. Her soft sculptures and dazzling “Infinity Mirrors” are the stuff of selfie-takers’ dreams, but Kusama’s impressive decades-long career certainly holds far more cachet than it does fodder for today’s aspiring social-media influencers.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama has worked with her signature polka dots since the age of 10, when she began to experience vivid hallucinations and claimed that patterns and dots were moving around her, swallowing up everything in view. She started to incorporate them into her paintings as a child. Kusama saw circular forms and nets on every surface and became especially fascinated with the pebbles that lined the bottom of the creek near her childhood home. Her family was sternly opposed to her art and her mother physically abused Kusama and discouraged her at a very early age. She has suffered psychological turmoil her whole life and is vocal about her mental illness. Today, Kusama is a voluntary resident at a psychiatric facility in Tokyo, and she calls her work “art medicine.”
At the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama trained in Nihonga, a traditional style of Japanese painting that originated during the Meiji period. On advice she solicited from painter Georgia O'Keeffe, a pioneer of modernism in America whom she greatly admired, she subsequently moved to New York City in 1958. There, Kusama flourished, creating prescient sculptures and large-scale monochrome paintings that bridged current styles with minimalism, which hadn’t yet achieved any kind of prominence as an art movement. She pushed boundaries with her “Accumulations” series, which saw her transforming found furniture pieces into sexualized objects, as well as with an avant-garde staging of theatrical orgies on the street — both stemming from her anxieties about sex as well as an endeavor to make a feminist statement about patriarchal authority and sexism.
Kusama was captivated by Surrealists as well as the Abstract Expressionists and greatly influenced the Pop artists who followed, befriending such icons as Donald Judd — who called her work “the best paintings being done” — and Andy Warhol, with whom she exhibited and later accused of stealing her ideas. Kusama moved with ease through artistic circles and made a point to draw attention to her “otherness” as a Japanese woman by wearing kimonos to her openings.
In 2021, Kusama brought her floral and vegetal sculptures to the New York Botanical Garden and her works can be found in the collections of many of the world’s top museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. She famously collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2012, and she created a 34-foot-tall balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan in 2019, becoming the first female artist to design a work for the event. In addition to her visual artwork, Kusama is a writer, publishing poetry, novels and an autobiography.
Find a collection of Yayoi Kusama art on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: BRUCE, Australia
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Platypus - Australia - Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon C. 1820By Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonLocated in BRUCE, ACTThis originally hand-colored engraving is from Georges Louis Leclerc comte de Buffon's Oeuvres complètes de Buffon. Nouvelle édition annotée et précédée d'une introduction sur Buffon...Category
Early 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsEngraving
- John Gould - Elegant Tit from 'The Birds of Asia' C. 1850By John GouldLocated in BRUCE, ACTElegant Tit - John Gould lithograph with hand-coloured size 54 cm X 37 cm excellent Condition This remarkable ornithology lithograph with hand-finis...Category
Late 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- John Gould - Chestnut-bellied Tit from 'The Birds of Asia' C. 1850By John GouldLocated in BRUCE, ACTChestnut-bellied Tit - John Gould lithograph with hand-coloured size 54 cm X 37 cm excellent Condition This remarkable ornithology lithograph w...Category
Late 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- John Gould - Chestnut-breasted Tit from 'The Birds of Asia' C. 1850By John GouldLocated in BRUCE, ACTChestnut-breasted Tit - John Gould lithograph with hand-coloured size 54 cm X 37 cm excellent Condition This remarkable ornithology lithograph ...Category
Late 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Hiroshige (1797-1858) - Duck in Snow 雪中芦に鴨 [Reproduction]By Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando Hiroshige)Located in BRUCE, ACTDuck in Snow 雪中芦に鴨 [Reproduction] Woodblock Print Size: 39 * 18 cm Edition: 20th Century Reproduction Condition: Very good color, impression, and state, embellished with embossing.Category
Early 20th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) - Mullet, Asparagus, and CamelliaBy Utagawa HiroshigeLocated in BRUCE, ACTUtagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) Mullet, Asparagus, and Camellia (魚尽くし ぼら、うど、椿), from a series known as Large Fish Size: Oban, 38 * 26.5 cm Edo period Excellent impression and ...Category
Mid-19th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Majus IIBy Victor VasarelyLocated in Palo Alto, CAVictor Vasarely Majus II, 1974 is a screenprint on polyester on metal that is hand-signed by Victor Vasarely (Hungary, 1906 – France, 1997) in pen and ink the lower right margin and...Category
1970s Op Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsMetal
- High StakesBy Jim RennertLocated in Greenwich, CTBusinessmen gathered around a conference table in what is closer to a high-stakes game of poker.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsAluminum
- Life VestBy Jim RennertLocated in Greenwich, CTTwo-dimensional work of a businessman wearing a life vest rowing in a lifeboat.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsAluminum
- UmbrellaBy Jim RennertLocated in Greenwich, CTTwo-dimensional work of a businessman at a crosswalk with a small umbrella. Edition of 10.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsAluminum
- Win WinBy Jim RennertLocated in Greenwich, CTTwo-dimensional interpretation of Jim Rennert's A Deal's A Deal. Work is a UV print on ultra-clear polyester faced with acrylic with white backing on an aluminium back. Edition of 10.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsAluminum
- Dishtowel Fold, 2018, polyester cord, PVC rod, stainless steel, 94.5 x 49 x26 inBy Daniel G. HillLocated in Darien, CTIn recent years, Daniel G. Hill has been fixated on the work’s method of construction and its physical presence. During the winter of 2014, he began a new line of inquiry, translati...Category
2010s Minimalist Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsStainless Steel