Yayoi Kusama’s biography will be released as a graphic novel

The history of the formation of one of the most successful artists of our time in the form of a comic will be available from September 15, 2020.

Yayoi Kusama is undoubtedly one of the most popular and successful contemporary artists. Her exhibitions and installations beat attendance records time after time. Her market sales results have been on the record list for female authors over the past decade.

So, the most expensive work of Yayoi Kusama was Interminable Net # 4, sold at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 2019 for $ 7.95 million, including the buyer’s commission. Overall, the last three auction seasons (2017–2019) have been the most successful in the artist’s history. In the public market, her works were sold for $ 255 million.

Despite the fact that two large-scale exhibitions dedicated to the work of Kusama – a retrospective at the Gropius Bau in Berlin and an exhibition of monumental works of art in the open air at the New York Botanical Gardens – have been postponed due to the pandemic, connoisseurs of her work will have a chance to take a fresh look on the story of this outstanding artist. On September 15, 2020, the artist’s first-of-its-kind biography will go on sale in the form of a graphic novel, KUSAMA: A Graphic Biography, by Italian-Thai cartoonist Eliza Masellari.

Throughout 128 pages of this literally bright book, containing more than 400 illustrations, Yayoi Kusama’s difficult path to fame is described in detail, starting with her departure from Japan as an unknown young artist, the main milestones of the formation of her style in the creative environment of New York in the 1960s years, returning home and achieving well-deserved fame around the world. In addition to describing biographical scenes, illustrations in the book also cover the most famous works of Kusama, including the famous polka dot pattern, installations, sculptures, and paintings inspired by nature.