KUSAMA: Princess of Polka Dots documentary trailer. Video directed by Heather Lenz and produced by Heather Lenz and Karen Johnson via Kusamadocumentary.com
What
Yayoi KusamaWhen
9 February – 5 June 2012Where
Tate Modern. Bankside, SE1 9TG, London.Rundown
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has become renowned over the last seven decades for work that crosses the genres of abstract expressionism, surrealism, Pop Art and minimalism. Awarded the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Laureate for lifetime achievement in painting in 2006, She has become synonymous with her use of spots, exploration of infinity, fear and perception. Seeking to create and depict the hallucinations she has suffered (Kusama who is now in her nineties has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital since 1977), her work spanning sculpture, painting, video art, live installation, drawing etc has examined obsessive compulsion through repeated motifs (spots, eyes, phalli, abstract organic like structures and forms). In the sixties Kusama (who moved to New York at 27) was one of the few women associated with the Pop Art movement, exhibiting with the likes of Andy Warhol. London’s Tate Modern is currently holding a retrospective exhibition. The large exhibition as supported by Louis Vuitton, spans nine decades of Kusama’s life starting right from her sketches as a child, her early work in Japan, her notable Self Obliteration project and art while in New York right through to her recent work. Her output over her career and life is phenomenal in volume, It is varied in style and medium over the decades but always distinctly Kusama.Information on the exhibition here. and see the Facebook page for the Kusama Documentary here.
