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One of the most prominent avant-garde artists of the 21st century.
She is currently at the top of the list of the most expensive living artists. Her artistic path is unique. From an outsider in the art world, she has become the most commercially successful female artist on the planet.
Yayoi Kusama is well known as «Polka Dot Queen» for her obsessive use of polka dots in her works. Infinity, repetition and the desire to merge with the world around her are among the most important elements of her art. Kusama’s work is based on inner reality, hallucinations, fears and obsessions. Today she lives and works in a studio in Tokyo, next to a psychiatric clinic, where she is under constant medical supervision. In spite of her respectable age, 93 years old, the Japanese artist continues to create. She is still in high demand among buyers of contemporary art and fans of art toys.
From the age of 10, the future artist was in a kind of anxious state, which could not be corrected, and she saw hallucinations. On the advice of a psychiatrist, to calm down, she began to make drawings of her visions. And over time, this art therapy developed into art.
The people around Kusama didn’t understand and didn’t accept her. Very important role in the life of the future artist played a book of reproductions by Georgia O’Keeffe. The illustrations so impressed Yayoi Kusama that she wrote her a letter. And as a result of a long correspondence she made a decision to leave patriarchal Japan for a rather advanced, as she thought, America. But even in that country she had to face obstacles.
At that time, the system was confined to white male artists, continuing the tradition of modernism. And Yayoi Kusama was a woman, and moreover a Japanese woman. She was out of the context of Western culture. Kusama didn’t get the support that exhibition curators, gallery owners gave to male artists. Moreover, many male artists were so inspired by her work that they practically stole the concept of her art works. One such artist was Andy Warhol. He was at her presentation and adopted from her the idea of multiple reproductions of a picture in his work «Cow Wallpaper».
She was disappointed and her deteriorating health forced Yayoi Kusama to return to Japan. On her return, she became depressed and went to a mental hospital and stayed out of the picture for almost 20 years. Throughout this period she worked hard and continued to use art therapy. She used her trauma in a very creative way. In the early 90’s she returned to New York with a retrospective exhibition. After many years the artist finally received her recognition both in the West and in her home country.
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