Yayoi Kusama is one of the most popular artists in the world. She once said, “If it weren’t for art, I would have committed suicide”. At the age of 92, she still insists on her art business. There will be four Saturdays this year. She will exhibit “Kusama: Cosmic Nature” at the New York Botanical Garden, which will bring polka-dot plant sculptures and a brand-new “Infinite Mirror House”. Although these exhibitions are limited in time, in many parts of the world, Yayoi Kusama’s public sculptures are permanently open, and many art galleries have permanent collections of her artworks. We’ve packed it for you. Maybe there are one or two good places around you.
- Naoshima, the most famous pumpkin in the world.
Speaking of public sculptures in Yayoi Kusama, the pumpkin on Naoshima may be the first person to jump into your mind. Whether you have been to Seto Inland Sea Art Festival or not, you may have seen this pumpkin while surfing the Internet.
The yellow polka-dot pumpkin faces the sea, and the jumping color does not make it out of tune with nature. On the contrary, it has a sense of reality that blends into nature. It is affectionately called “the pumpkin of the end of the world”.
In addition to the yellow pumpkin, there is a huge red polka-dot pumpkin near the pier, which is called “Naoshima’s goalkeeper”. Nowadays, two pumpkins have become an informal symbol of Naoki Island, making the island a natural art space and attracting countless tourists.
- Yayoi Kusama Art Museum | Tokyo
Commemorative Exhibition of the Opening of Yayoi Kusama Art Museum
Compared with other limited or unlimited exhibitions, it is naturally a better choice to visit the exhibition in the art museum established by Yayoi Kusama himself. In 2017, Yayoi Kusama Art Museum opened in Bentian Town, Shinjuku District, Tokyo.
Last month, the exhibition just ended. At the end of this month, the new exhibition “Mystery and Symbol: Monochrome Paintings of Yayoi Kusama” will be released soon. As a personal art museum, there will be more in-depth and unpopular content exhibitions, not just familiar pumpkins and polka dots.
Canned desserts with red polka dots and pumpkins are only sold in Yayoi Kusama Art Museum, which is also an important factor to attract tourists.
- Yayoi Kusama’s favorite | The wife has a wife.
《Tsumari in Bloom》
“Of all the open-air sculptures I have created for Japan and other parts of the world,’ ‘Tsumari in Bloom’ is my favorite.” Yayoi Kusama once said such things himself. Therefore, when you go to the fields in the wife-owned area of Yuehou, Niigata City, you will see one of Yayoi Kusama’s favorite works.
When she saw a huge flower sculpture in the field, Yayoi Kusama felt unprecedented calm. She described herself as bathed in the air of her stepmother, like a flower, and the sun fell from the sky.
- Ten Hotan Forever Songs | Aomori
Ten Hotan Museum of Modern Art in Aomori Prefecture has a permanent collection of 38 commissioned artworks, including Love Forever, Singing in Towada specially created by Yayoi Kusama. The polka-dot sculpture contains the ubiquitous themes in Yayoi Kusama: pumpkins, girls, puppies and mushrooms.
The girl named Hanako-chan is the embodiment of Yayoi Kusama. She looked straight ahead and sang in the fields, full of energy. The giant pumpkin also has a unique cave with colorful spots flashing in the dark, inviting the audience to enter a spreading world.
- Matsumoto Art Museum | Matsumoto
Matsumoto is the hometown of Yayoi Kusama. Although her relationship with her hometown used to be tense, she finally embraced each other’s artistic ideas. The art museum built here a few years after 2002, not only the front and back of the house are sculptures of Yayoi Kusama, but even the glass walls and vending machines of the art museum are “invaded” by the wave points in Yayoi Kusama. - The only Yayoi Kusama in China | Guangzhou
Although Yayoi Kusama is the only public art sculpture in China, this “Flowers that Bloom in Guangzhou” was unveiled at the igc Art Park in Guangzhou Tianhui Square at the end of 2016, but few people paid attention to it.
In fact, it is also the largest public art sculpture in Yayoi Kusama outside Japan, with the highest point 7.5 meters above the ground. After learning the name of Guangzhou “Flower City”, Yayoi Kusama created this work. She said: “The dots represent the touch of endless vitality. Dot-covered flowers mean the eternal glory of love. ” .
- Immersed in fireflies | Phoenix
Yayoi Kusama’s light and shadow installation “You Who Are Getting Oblitered in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies” is permanently collected in the Phoenix Art Museum. In a dark room, the mirror reflects 250 colorful LED visitors into the light, just like being surrounded by fireflies at night. This work is inspired by Japanese folk stories. The hero of the story is an inspirational person, with 10,000 people only fireflies.
Because it is a permanent device, there is almost no need to queue up in the morning and evening on weekdays, and you can enjoy a circular light show quietly.
- Mattress factory that doesn’t sell mattresses | Pittsburgh
《Repetitive Vision》，1996
In Pittsburgh, there is a Mattress Factory that doesn’t sell mattresses. It used to be a real factory. More than 40 years ago, it became a space for artists to put equipment art. Now it has become a landmark building of modern art in Pittsburgh and the first art space in the United States to buy Yayoi Kusama’s works.
Many tourists have deep memories of these dot dummies. They come from Yayoi Kusama’s work Repetitive Vision. In the repeated dot world, emotions are often new.
《Infinity Dots Mirrored Room》，1996
Yayoi Kusama thinks that the mirror house is the entrance to another world. In this infinite mirror house with colorful waves on the floor, she strongly evokes her personal identity and perception of reality, and discusses bigger problems such as the permeability of the boundary between herself and the outside world.
- The Soul of Millions of Light Years | Los Angeles
The Broad
《Infinity Mirrored Room-The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away On View》，2013
The Broad, founded by two philanthropists in downtown Los Angeles, has two classic works by Yayoi Kusama in the art museum.
In 2013, Yayoi Kusama believed that the “Infinite Mirror House” created in 2003 was full of souls of millions of light years. The room is completely covered by a mirror. Ten LED lights create countless reflected lights, and everyone can become an observer of the world.
《Longing for Eternity》，2017
Another “infinite mirror house” is full of eternal desire. Even if you just peep through the window like the porthole of an airplane, the room full of LED light can still bring visual immersion, and extreme repetition makes the feeling of infinity and transcendence erupt.
- Beverly Garden Park | Los Angeles
《Hymn of Life: Tulips》，2007
Take a walk to Beverly Garden Park, and you can also hit it off with Yayoi Kusama’s classic works. This is Hymn of Life: Tulips (Hymn of Life: Tulips) created in 2007, which is composed of stained glass fiber, ceramic tiles and steel. These “tulips” always bloom in the days when tulips die.
- The Power of Tulips | Lille
《Les tulipes de Shangri-la》，2004
In 2004, Lille has become european capital of culture. Yayoi Kusama created the name “Les tulipes de Shangri-la” for this purpose. Several wave-point tulips grew in a large public sculpture. Fran ois-Mitterrand was in the middle of the square, and the tallest one reached 8 meters. Bright colors collide with the surrounding gray buildings, bringing vitality, which is the unique power of tulips in Yayoi Kusama.
- The wave point becomes a mirror steel ball | London
Outside the Liverpool Street Station on the Elizabeth Line in London, Yayoi Kusama is Britain’s first permanent art installation-Infinite Accumulation, which will be completed. Her iconic wave point will become a flowing mirror steel ball and guide passengers from the public area outside the station to the east entrance of the station.
“London is a metropolis with diverse cultural backgrounds,” Yayoi Kusama said. These balls symbolize unique individuals, and the curves supporting the balls let us imagine a basic social structure. “
- The Infinite Universe of Pumpkin | Canberra
《The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens》，2017
From December 2018 to January, the Australian National Art Museum in Canberra became the permanent residence of Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin mirror house work “The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens”. This work has been open to the public for free in the past two or three years.
Rows of pumpkins have been reflected by the mirror countless times, just like falling into an infinite universe composed of pumpkins. Combined with her iconic polka-dot pumpkin and mirror house, we can explore more diverse ideas.
- Crowdfunding Yayoi Kusama Works | Toronto
《INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER》，2017
In 2016 and 2000, Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition came to the Ontario Art Museum, and people who bought tickets even lined up in the street. After the exhibition, in order to make Yayoi Kusama’s works stay forever, the Ontario Art Museum bought $10,000 for Infinity Mirrored Room–Let’s Survive Forever through crowdfunding 200 for her works.
In this infinite mirror room, the silver ball becomes the protagonist, irregularly staying at the foot of the mirror, and the mirror makes the sphere into a certain regular arrangement.
- The only permanent narcissus garden | Brazil
《Narcissus Garden》，2009
Inhotim Institute 2009 is a one-time collection of the famous art museum and botanical garden in Brazil. New works of art include Yayoi Kusama’s iconic work Narcissus Garden (Narcissus Garden), which is also the only place in the world to collect Narcissus Garden permanently.
In 1966, during the 33rd Venice Biennale, Yayoi Kusama brought her first-generation “Narcissus Garden” with a metallic plastic ball 2 outside the 1500 exhibition hall and sold it for US dollars. Her intention is to satirize the commercial artistic environment, and this group of works has become an important turning point in her artistic career.