Yayoi Kusama

Her passion for art began at age of 10 when she started drawing figures she saw from hallucinations, which are now internationally famous and celebrated. Yet her mother was not supportive of her art. Kusama began to draw her iconic dots faster and faster because she was in constant fear of her mother taking and ripping apart her work. The physical abuse Kusama endured during her childhood still influences the production of her art.

Although her mother did not approve of Kusuma’s dreams of becoming an artist, she still attended art school where she studied Nihonga painting. This style is when one uses techniques and materials that are of the Japanese tradition. Kusama felt trapped in the strictly Japanese style so she began to try other genres. She wanted to put her personal sensations and interpretations of the world around her on canvas.

In the 1960s Yayoi Kusama met Andy Warhol, who also became the Japanese artist’s first buyer. Her early works were mainly large-scale monochrome paintings, thanks to which she quickly gained attention.

Her most recent work aims to tell the story of infinity through sculptures. For the 1993 Venice Biennale, Kusama created a hall of mirrors filled with small pumpkins, which have since come to represent her alter ego.

Her work is exhibited in numerous museums around the world, from the Tate Modern in London to the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Her fame has also reached the general public thanks to her collaboration with British musician Peter Gabriel in 1994 for the video of the song Lovetown, in which Kusama’s world of polka dots meets and animates Gabriel’s music.

Today, at over 90 years old, Kusama is the richest artist in the world and is well known for her many collaborations with major brands. In 2012, she collaborated with Louis Vuitton, which was later renewed in 2022. They created numerous garments with the iconic polka dots in all sizes and colours.