Yayoi Kusama's Life and Career Through 10 Key Artworks

Yayoi Kusama, born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, began creating art at age 10, incorporating polka dots that became her signature. After studying nihonga at Kyoto City University of Arts, she moved to New York in 1957, burning 2,000 works. Her first solo exhibition in 1959 at Brata Gallery and Nova Gallery featured Infinity Nets paintings, inspired by the Pacific Ocean. In 1963, she created the immersive installation Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show at Gertrude Stein Gallery, followed by Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli's Field in 1965. At the 1966 Venice Biennale, she installed Narcissus Garden with 1,500 mirror balls, selling them for a few dollars. Between 1967 and 1969, she staged anti-war performances including Anatomic Explosion on Wall Street and the first homosexual wedding in 1968. Returning to Japan in 1973, she entered a psychiatric clinic in Tokyo in 1977, where she still resides and runs her workshop. Her comeback included representing Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale with yellow polka dot pumpkins. The Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo in 2017. Now 95, she continues to create art daily.