5 Essential Facts About Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama changed the way we look at polka dots. The Japanese avant-garde artist, who works across painting, installation, and sculpture, has covered rooms, trees, and buildings with her iconic imagery. Kusama started painting her famous polka-dotted sculptures in the 1950s, which became a symbol for her entire career. The artist used the metaphor of dots for people to put her problems into perspective. “I wanted to examine the single dot that was my own life. One polka dot: a single particle among billions,” she said.

Kusama was part of the 1960s Pop Art movement in New York City, breaking free from the traditions of postwar art (depressing, painterly realism), wanting to create her own art movement. She lived in New York from 1957 to 1972, befriending Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Eva Hesse, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Roy Lichtenstein. She started making her 20 Infinity Mirror Rooms in 1965, which would later change how we experience art in the internet era.

Over the past 60 years, Kusama has been a pivotal figure in contemporary art. Here are five essential facts about the trailblazing artist.

1. She Has Been Breaking Industry Records for Her Entire Career

In 1966, Kusama was the first woman artist to represent Japan at the 33rd Venice Biennale, showing her piece Narcissus Garden. She would go on to break attendance records for museums worldwide, drawing over 480,000 visitors at Museum Ludwig in Cologne and setting the record for the most-attended exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, drawing over 570,000 visitors.

2. Kusama Has Spoken Openly About Mental Health

In her 2002 autobiography, Infinity Net, Kusama wrote about how her hallucinations and fears led to the recurring themes of polka dots and spotted pumpkins in her artwork. She has suffered from depression, obsessive-compulsive neurosis, and anxiety, and has lived at the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill in Tokyo since 1977. She has claimed in many interviews that “art saved my life.”

3. Kusama Is Regularly Chosen to Collaborate with Fashion Designers

Kusama’s eclectic personal style (a red wig and polka-dotted dresses) is both self-expression and business. Kusama established Kusama Fashion Company Ltd in 1968, selling avant-garde clothing at Bloomingdale’s. She would later design lip gloss for Lancôme in 2011 and partner with Louis Vuitton on fashion lines in 2012 and again in 2023.

4. Kusama Changed the Way We Document Art with Our Smartphones

When Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms toured museums in the early 2010s, it was a time when social media was taking off. Walking into Kusama’s light-filled, mirrored labyrinth installations allowed viewers to become an active participant in the artwork with their smartphones. Sharing a constellation-like experience while stepping into her mirrored installations became the norm. It became such a common trend that museums had to enforce time limits (from 30 seconds to one minute) in Kusama’s installations.

5. Her Blockbuster Exhibitions Ushered in a New Era of Timed Museum Ticketing

Kusama’s in-demand exhibitions changed how museum ticketing is sold. After several museums had long lineups and crashed servers, museums had to stagger ticket sales, rolling out monthly or even weekly ticket drops to avoid queues. This follows the approach of The Yayoi Kusama Museum, which opened in Tokyo in 2017, where limited, timed ticketing is available each day.