This year in London there is a rare chance to see two works by the cult Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Yayoi Kusama is one of the most eccentric and vibrant artists in contemporary art. “Woman with Orange Hair”, as the press often writes about her, she has made her art ode to color, geometry, and fantasy. Giant pumpkin peas, colorful paintings, landscapes with intrusive lines and dots – her works are easy to recognize at a glance, where they would be: on the streets of New York, in the Paris Louis Vuitton Foundation, New York MoMA.
Infinity Rooms is Yayoi Kusama’s most famous work and one of the most popular installations in contemporary art in principle. The Japanese artist created her first installation back in 1965: then she filled a mirror room with huge objects in peas, and the mirror in the room created the illusion of infinity. Critics call the “Mirror Room” an obsessive work: it embodied the hallucinations of Kusama, which she had experienced since childhood. The 1960s, when this work was created, were a transitional phase for Yaya Kusama: she moved from Japan to the States, where she began to engage not only in painting but also in sculpture and fashion design, quickly gaining popularity as a leader of the avant-garde art movement.
On May 11th, an exhibition will begin in London’s Tate Modern, which will showcase two “mirror rooms” of Kusama. The exhibition is not only devoted to the history of the most famous installation of the artist, but also to how the “mirror room” influenced contemporary art. The installation is moving to London from the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, where it was shown last year.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Rooms exhibition will be held from 11 May 2020 to 9 May 2021 at Tate Modern in London.
