“Eternity of Eternal Eternity" is a new exhibition of the latest works by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the National Museum of Art of Osaka, which will be soon touring the rest of Japan - Saitama (April), Matsumoto City (July), and Niigata City (November)
It shows that far from being stuck in a rut of dots, the Japanese avant-garde artist continues to innovate, while still tackling the same repetitive patterns.
It shows that far from being stuck in a rut of dots, the Japanese avant-garde artist continues to innovate, while still tackling the same repetitive patterns.
At 84, the artist continues to display a staggering creative desire. As she has done all her life – ie with her hallucinatory experiences –she manages to turn what could be a major limitation – her now frailty – into a new artistic approach. Instead of standing up to paint as she used to, she is now seating down in a wheelchair around a table and attacks her canvas on all sides, creating a new planar expression as evident in her two new series, Love Forever and My Eternal Spirit.
In both series, the artist depicts an endless stream of linked images, brim with the free-spirited, joyous imagination of a child while revealing visions from Kusama's inner world to realize a body of work unlike anything the artist has ever produced.
Love Forever came first and is a series of over 50 drawing in black marker pen she began 7 or 8 years ago. The chain of images include pola dots, eyes, her profile, flowers, etc. On their own as in the photo above, the works loose some of their impact, but presented all together at the museum in one large room, they are extremely impressive and showcase the creative spirit of the artist (unfortunatly no photos are allow of the room, which is a real shame!)
The second series of acrylic work, My Eternal Spirit, started two year ago and appears like a continuation of the themes/motifs explored in Love Forever. But this time, all in bright colors.
On display are 47 works out of 150 works she's already realized (She's extremely productive and can work on one painting a day!)
The museum also presents her latest sculptures, an ubiqious giant yellow pumpkin, but also some mesmerizing giant white tulips covering in red spots that seemingly fade or get absorbed into their white and red dot background.
