Yayoi Kusama: The Authentic Princess of Polka Dots

Yayoi Kusama is currently the biggest-selling female contemporary artist in the world. Get ready to enter into the magical world of her arts and herself!

The Princess of Polka Dots – Yayoi Kusama – is a contemporary artist who was born on 22nd March 1929 in a town called Matsumoto in Japan.

She is most famous for her bold sculptures and installations. However, she is also active and influential in many other art forms including painting, poetry, performance, and fashion. Her trademark is her repetitive use of dots!

Who is Yayoi Kusama?

From a very young age Yayoi Kusama wanted to be an artist. She would paint and draw as often as she could. However, her family were incredibly unsupportive of her artistic dreams, so much so that Yayoi sometimes felt the need to rush her art so she could finish it before her mother ripped it away from her.

Her work is largely inspired by the hallucinations she has endured throughout her lifetime, including one particular incident she experienced as a child.

When she was just a little girl, she suffered a hallucination where she was stuck in a field of flowers that began talking to her. Each flowerhead looked like a dot and the dots went on for as far as her eyes could see until she felt like she was “self-obliterating” into an endless field of dots.

“Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.”

Throughout her childhood she had a tough home life and continuously struggled with her mental health. “When I was a child, my mother did not know I was sick. So, she hit me, smacked me, for she thought I was saying crazy things. She abused me so badly – nowadays, she would be put in jail. She would lock me in a storehouse, without any meals, for as long as half a day. She had no knowledge of children’s mental illness.”

In the documentary of her life, Kusama Infinity, she talks about her father’s infidelity. She goes on to say that as a child her mother would force her to spy on her father and his lovers.

This experience was so traumatising that Yayoi Kusama developed a fear of sex as well as phalluses, which went on to impact various relationships throughout her life. She says that her fear of sex goes hand in hand with her obsession with sex. This might explain why in 1960 she wrote an open letter to Richard Nixon -the 37th president of the United States- offering to have vigorous sex with him if he would stop the Vietnam War!

Yayoi Kusama never had a traditional relationship with a man in terms of what would be expected within Japanese culture (in Japanese culture she would be expected to have an arranged marriage and then go on to have children with her husband). However, it is said that she and fellow artist – Joseph Cornell – developed a passionate yet platonic relationship that lasted many years.

They first met in 1962 through an art dealer and according to Yayoi Kusama, he developed an obsession for her. “I was close to Joseph Cornell for ten years. He developed an obsession for me. When I first visited him, he was dressed in a ripped sweater. I was very scared, I thought I was seeing a ghost. He had such an extraordinary appearance, and he lived like a hermit. He was unusual as an artist. He, too, was an outsider.”

Due to her stifling and depressing home life, she began to dream about moving away. She had her sights set on becoming a big artist in the big apple and put her plan to move in motion by sending a letter to artist, Georgie O’ Keefe, asking for advice. Georgia O’Keefe wrote back advising her to come to the US and show her work to anyone who might be interested.

However, the art scene in New York City was completely male dominated and Yayoi Kusama not only had to stand by and watch her male contemporaries outperform her, she also had to watch them gain recognition by using her ideas.

She believes her work was stolen by artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol – “Andy was a person who incorporated everything indiscriminately in his art as if he were running a wholesale business of imitations.”

But the worst betrayal was when avant-garde artist – Lucas Samaras – copied her mirrored installation idea and exhibited it as if it was his own idea, at the prestigious Pace Gallery.

Yayoi Kusama, "Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity," 2009. Infinity Mirror Room

Sadly, this event drove Yayoi Kusama to attempt suicide by throwing herself from the window of her apartment. Luckily, she survived and later managed to check herself into a hospital where the doctors took a great interest in art therapy. As a result, art therapy became a way of life for Yayoi Kusama.

Why is Yayoi Kusama an inspirational icon?

She is a prolific figure in contemporary art whose work has shaped history. Over the years, she has won numerous awards and honors, including the Asahi Prize (2001), French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2003), and 18th Praemium Imperiale award for painting (2006).

She is known for her “infinity installations” in which she installs hundreds of LED lights in mirrored rooms. These rooms are a way for people to immerse themselves in the feeling of self-obliteration. They are specifically designed to make people feel like they are being swamped by endless dots in an infinite space.

Over the years, her work has influenced exciting art developments, including pop art and minimalism. She was also one of the first people to dabble in performance art.

But, as well as being an art pioneer she is a total style icon, who in 1965 had the sudden realisation that she could reach more people through fashion. That was when Kusama Fashion Company Ltd was born. And, given the fact that Yayoi Kusama can often be seen donning a bright red wig and bold polka dot ensemble, you can imagine how daring her other fashion designs are.

When she was a child, she would express rebellion by decorate her clothes with dots. Then later down the line she used her designs to express her feelings around anti-war and patriarchal movements by featuring holes instead of dots, that were strategically placed to reveal the model’s buttocks, breasts, or genitalia.

Since then, she has gone on to reach unimaginable heights, designing fashion items for high end brands such as Lancôme, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton (this ended up being the most extensive artist collaboration Louis Vuitton had ever commissioned)

In her own words – “Clothes ought to bring people together, not separate them”.

Her outlandish fashion, incredible artwork and drive to succeed are just some of the reasons Yayoi Kusama is such an incredible icon and inspiration to women of today.