Yayoi Kusama Essay
Yayoi Kusama
Throughout this essay, I will be
discussing the life and work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama who showed
persistence and bravery during her life, but conveyed sadness and vulnerability
in her work. Her artwork has been described as “hypnotic” by Donald Judd, an
American minimalist artist, as well as Kusama herself being named as an
“incredible genius”. Yayoi Kusama is well known for her emotional abstract
paintings, but most importantly her performance art which protested World War 2
and her struggles as a female artist in a male dominated profession, at this
time.
Yayoi Kusama, born 1929, Matsumoto,
wanted to be a painter from the age of 10 and began he journey painting dots.
She grew up on her family’s seed farm which later influenced her style of art
as she felt “obliterated by flowers”. This feeling of being engulfed translated
into her artwork through their grand size which makes the viewer feel
surrounded, exposed and unprotected, much like Kusama did as a child. Her
parents thought she lacked etiquette and so would only allow her to attend art
classes if she also participated in etiquette classes. Kusama’s father would
often have affairs and therefore her mother, who felt powerless, would take her
frustration out on Kusama. For example, her mother would snatch the paint
brushes from her which resulted in Kusama’s quick paintings. To complete each
painting, it takes Kusama about 3 days which conveys a hysterical, panicked
atmosphere in her work. She explains how the “canvas cannot keep up with
[her]”. Kusama’s first exhibition was in her hometown of Matsumoto at a local
theatre, however, people felt her work was too abstract and strange. People
said they “couldn’t understand [her artwork]” and this meant no one came to her
exhibition.
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| Georgia O'Keeffe 'Black Iris' |
Georgia
O’Keeffe was Kusama’s main inspiration and was particularly drawn to her
painting ‘Black Iris’ due to the nature imagery and the realistic, dream-like
atmosphere of her artwork. Kusama then sent O’Keeffe a letter and some of her
own works. O’Keeffe not only thought that her work was “interesting”, but also
helped her to find a potential exhibition in NYC. After being invited by
O’Keeffe to NYC, Kusama burnt hundreds of her paintings as he wanted to be
better, smuggled money (sewn into her kimono) onto a plane and moved to the
USA. This was difficult as women and minorities weren’t taken seriously, but
she went with the goal of creating a new history of art in the USA. She was never able to exhibit her work in galleries, but she
would still invite people, who believed she was exhibiting, who would then ask
about her work. She was however, invited to be part of an exhibition for
artists who were not being given the opportunity to show their work. Donald
Yudd was among the people who viewed her work at this gallery, and Frank Stella
brought some of her paintings. This opportunity was a breakthrough for Kusama,
but also caused her large mental distress. This is because artists’ like Andy
Warhol would copy her ideas and make them well known in their own name. She
wasn’t recognised due to her gender and lack of fame. She became very self-conscious
and would cover her windows, paranoid that her work would be copied. Her lack
of success and then stress she was under ultimately led her to purposefully
fall from her window in attempted suicide. Yayoi Kusama survived this fall and
her work began to channel her current, personal frustrations rather than her
previous experiences.
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| Yayoi Kusama 'Infinity Nets' |
Kusama’s work was
originally influenced by the ocean as the people living in the mountains where
she grew up would dream of seeing the Pacific Ocean. She would make abstract
impasto paintings, which resemble the nets of a fishing boat that she entitled
‘Infinity Nets’. One of her largest paintings was 33 feet long and filled the
viewers entire peripheral vision to make them feel isolated and completely
surrounded. This was because Kusama often felt this way growing up and so
wanted her audience to understand her emotions and thoughts. Kusama explains
how once something enters her mind, she can’t get rid of it and that obsession
is the main theme of her art. Later, the Space Race between the USSR and USA
fuelled Yayoi Kusama’s art to have more consciousness of unity, much like
rockets and space exploration. Renaissance painters would paint about infinity
but the viewer was still in control and the painting was contained in a frame.
Kusama instead wanted to create art that engulfed and controlled the viewer, so
she created a room full of mirrors. Although, this mirrored environment had
already been created before, meaning her work lack originality. After Kusama’s
attempted suicide, she focused on performance art, specifically relating to
political issues (like the war) and equality and was influenced by avant-garde pieces
of art. She also wanted to celebrate homosexuality, and even performed gay
marriages. In 1966, Venice, she placed mirrored balls in front of a monuments
without invitation along with a sign that read, ‘You Can Buy Your Narcissism’.
Kusama was also against the war due to her own experiences and would therefore
do nude demonstrations as she wanted to celebrate the beauty of people’s bodies
and try to show what would be destroyed at and after the war. After her many
public protests and extreme demonstrations, Yayoi Kusama was not thought of as
a serious artist. Japan thought of her as an embarrassment, which lead to her
name being removed from her High School Alumni. She was often featured in
Japanese papers, portrayed in a negative way, and so her family would by all
the newspapers and hide them because they were ashamed.
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| Yayoi Kusama 'Narcissus Garden' |