Yayoi KUSAMA YAYOI KUSAMA Born 1929 Matsumoto, Japan Moved to New York 1958 Returned to Tokyo 1977 Lives and works Tokyo, Japan Selected solo exhibitions* 2002 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia Kunsthalle Wien, Austria 'Yayoi Kusama: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture', Elias Fine Art, Allston, USA 2000 Serpentine Gallery, London, UK 'From Zero to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama in Context', Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, USA 'Yayoi Kusama', Le Consortium Contemporary Art Center, Dijon, France; Denmark; Korea 'Early Drawings from the Collection of Richard Castellane', The Art Museum, Princeton University, USA Ouka-Shorin, Nagano Galerie Piece Unique, Paris, France 1999 'In Full Bloom: Yayoi Kusama, Years in Japan', Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; Japan Crown Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan Gallery Paris, Yokohama 1998 'Yayoi Kusama: Works from the 1950s', Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA 'Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958–1968', Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; Japan 'Self Obliteration', Media of Modern Art Contemporary (Moma Contemporary), Tokyo 1996 'Yayoi Kusama: The 1950s and 1960s', Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA Art Gallery Artium, Fukuoka 1996, '98, 2002 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA 1995 'Yayoi Kusama Etchings', 77 Gallery, Tokyo 1995, '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '01 Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo 1994 Nagano Prefectual Shinano Art Museum Gallery Art Wing, Kanagawa 1993 Galleria Valentina Moncada, Rome, Italy Shuyu Gallery, Tokyo Gallery Tomita, Hiroshima 1992 Gallery Aries, Tokyo Gallery Lamia, Tokyo Sogetsu Art Museum and Niigata City Art Museum 1991, '92, '94, '96, '98, '99 MOMA Contemporary, Fukuoka 1991, 1996, 2000 Ouka-Shorin, Nagano 1989 'Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective', Center for International Contemporary Art, New York, USA Gallery Ikeda Bizyutsu, Tokyo 1989, '91, '92, '99, 2000, '01 Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo 1988 'Soul Burning Flashes', Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; UK 1987 Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka Musée Municipal, Dole, France 1983 'Self-Obliteration', Video Gallery Scan, Tokyo (performance) 'Encounter of Souls', Jardin de Luseine, Tokyo 1983, '89, '90, '94, '95 Gallery KURA, Matsumoto 1982 Box Gallery, Nagoya 1982, '84, '86, '91, '94, '95 Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo 1982, '93 Galleria d'Arte del Naviglio, Milan, Italy 1980 'Self Obliteration of Nets and Polka Dots', Gallery Toshin, Tokyo 'Unknown Works by Yayoi Kusama: The Flash That Burns Grass', American Center, Tokyo 1976 'Obsessional Art, a Requiem for Death and Life', Osaka Formes Gallery, Tokyo 1975 'Message of Death From Hades', Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo 1967 'Love Room', Galerij Orez, The Hague, The Netherlands 1966 'Driving Image Show', Gallerie d'Arte del Naviglio, Milan, Italy; Germany 'New Collection', Chrysler Museum, Provincetown, USA 1964, '65, '66 R. Castellane Gallery, New York, USA 1963 'Aggregation One Thousand Boats Show', Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York, USA 1961 Stadtisches Museum, Trier, Germany 1960, '61 Gres Gallery, Washington DC, USA 1959 'Obsessional Monochrome', Brata Gallery, New York, USA 1957 Zoe Dusanne Gallery, Seattle, USA 1955 Takemiya Gallery, Tokyo 1952 The First Community Center, Matsumoto Selected group exhibitions* 2001 ‘Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art’ 'Les Annees Pop', Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France 'Collaborations with Parkett 1984 to Now', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 'Global Visions: Art After 1980', Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 'Louise Bourgeois & Yayoi Kusama: Works from 1942 to 2000', Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA 'Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art', Hayward Gallery, London, UK 'Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis', Tate Modern, London, UK 2000 Gallery Now, Toyama '12th Biennale of Sydney', Australia Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo 'Japanese Art in the 20th Century', Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 1999 'Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949–76', Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Austria; Spain; Japan 'Spiral TV: 3rd Art Life 21 Festival', Spiral Garden, Tokyo 'Visions of the Body: Fashion or Invisible Corset', The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto 1998 'Tension', Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA 'Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation', MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA 'Site of Desire: 1998 Taipei Biennale (3rd)', Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan 'Art/Ecosystem: The Contemporary Japanese Art Scene', Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Tochigi 'Towards Another Normality', Hara Museum ARC, Gunma 'Between the Unknown Straits: Art Now in Japan and Korea', Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Korea 'Travel & Leisure', Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA 1997 'The Maximal Sixties: Pop, Op and Figuration', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 'De-Genderism', Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo 'Japan Today MAK', Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria 'Japanese Art 1960s, Japanese Summer 1960–64', Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki '5th NICAF '97 Tokyo', Tokyo International Exhibition Center 1996 '1964: A Turning Point in Japanese Art', Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo '50 Contemporary Japanese Artists', Nabio Museum, Osaka Galerie A, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 'Art of Postwar 1960s Avant-Garde', Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki 'Art at Home: Standard Ideal Life', Spiral Garden, Tokyo 'NowHere', Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark 'A Decade of an Avantgarde Artists', Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA 1995 'ARS 95', Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Sweden 'Maux Faux', Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Inc., New York, USA 'Minimal Form', Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo 'Revolution: Art of The Sixties: From Warhol to Beuys', Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 'Japanese Culture: The Fifty Post War Years', Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo '4th NICAF Yokohama '95', Pacifico Yokohama 1994 'Cross and Square Grids', The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama 'Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky', Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; USA 'When the Body Becomes Art', Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo 'Aspects (1979–1994)', Hara Museum ARC, Gunma 'Open Air '94: Out of Bounds', Benesse House Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum 'Museum City Tenjin '94', Fukuoka 1993 'Japanese Outsider Art: Inhabitants of Another World', Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo '45th Biennale di Venezia', Italy 1992 'Adam & Eve', Museum of Modern Art, Saitama '10 Artists: Contemporary Japanese Art of the 1980s–90s', Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1991 'The World of Box', Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki 1990 'The Silent Dialogue: Still Life in the West and Japan', Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art 1989 '20ste Biennale Middelheim-Japan', Middelheim Open Air Museum of Sculpture, Antwerp, Belgium 'Art Exciting '89', Museum of Modern Art, Saitama 'Japanese Ways: Western Means', Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia 1986 'Contemporary Japanese Art', Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan 'Art: A Dialogue On Peace', Ohkurayama Memorial Hall, Yokohama 'Japon des Avant-Garde, 1910–70', Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France 1985 'Art Fair '85', Tokyo Central Museum of Art '40 Years of Japanese Contemporary Art', Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 'Reconstructions: Avant Garde Art in Japan, 1945–1965', Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK 1983 'Trends of Japanese Art in the 1960s', Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 'Yayoi Kusama and Ushio Shinohara Prints', Gallery Ho-Sun, Tokyo 1981 'The 1960s: A Decade of Change in Contemporary Japanese Art', National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1977 'Improbable Furniture', Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA 1974 'Woman's Work: American Art 1974', Philadelphia Civic Center, USA 1968 'Soft and Apparently Soft Sculpture', Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, USA 1967 'Objecten: Made in USA', Galerie Delta, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 1966 '33rd Biennale di Venezia', Italy 'Inner and Outer Space', Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden 'The Object Transformed', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1965 'Zero Avanguardia', Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy 'Japanese Artists Abroad: Europe and America', National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1964 'Mikro Zero/Nul/Mikro Nieuwe Realisme', Galerie Delta, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 1963 Green Gallery, New York, USA 'No Show', Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York, USA 1962 'Tentoonstelling Nul', Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1961 'Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture', Carnegie Institute, USA 1960 'Japanese Abstraction', Gres Gallery, Washington DC, USA 'Japan-American Women Artists Exhibition', Riverside Museum, New York, USA 'Monochrome Malerei', Stadtisches Museum, Leverkusen, Germany 1959 Nova Gallery, Boston, USA 1955 '18th Biennial International Watercolor Exhibition', Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA Qualifications, grants & awards* 1983 Kadokawa Shoten Novelist Prize, Tokyo 1982 Gold Award, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy 1958 Studied at Art Students League, New York, USA 1949 Graduated Kyoto Municipal School of Arts & Crafts Collections* Fukuoka Art Museum Hara Museum ARC, Gunma Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung, Ludwig, Vienna, Austria Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Museum of Modern Art, Saitama National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum National Museum of Art, Osaka Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA Whitney Museum of American Art, New York * All Japan unless otherwise stated Selected bibliography Adams, Brooks and Munroe, Alexandra. ‘Proliferating obsessions’. Art in America, vol.78, no.4, April 1990, pp.228–33. Corrin, Lisa G., Aladren, Mary Jane, and Greenan, Althea. ‘Kusama's tea’. Make, no.87, March–May 2000, pp.8–11. Friis-Hansen, Dana. ‘Yayoi Kusama's feminism’. Art and Text, no.49, September 1994, pp.48–55. Greenstein, M.A. ‘Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama in retrospective’. Art AsiaPacific, no.20, 1998, pp.34–6. Handelman, Eliot. ‘Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958–1968: Museum of Modern Art, New York’. Parachute, no.94, April–June 1999, pp.57–8. Hoptman, Laura et al. Yayoi Kusama. Phaidon, London, 2000. Karia, Bhudendra & Munroe, Alexandra. Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective [exhibition catalogue]. Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York, 1989. Koplos, Janet. ‘The phoenix returns’. Art in America, vol.87, no.2, February 1999, pp.92–7. Kim, Seung Duk. ‘Yayoi Kusama’. Art Press, no.267, April 2001, pp.20–3. Kultermann, Udo. ‘Lucid logic’. Sculpture, vol.16, no.1, January 1997, pp.26–31. Kuresawa, Takemi. ‘An unwritten biography: overturning the narrative of Yayoi Kusama’s self-obliteration’. Art AsiaPacific, no.30, 2001, pp.68–76. Matsui, Midori. ‘Beyond Oedipus: desiring production of Yayoi Kusama’. Parkett, no.59, 2000, pp.92–106. Munder, Heike. ‘Yayoi Kusama: body and representation strategies’. Camera Austria, no.71, 2000, pp.15–26. Munroe, Alexandra. ‘Radical will’. Art AsiaPacific, no.16, 1997, pp.28–9. Murphy, Jay. ‘Pop goes Surrealism’. Art Papers, vol.23, no.3, May–June 1999, pp.28–9. Nixon, Mignon. ‘Posing the phallus’. October, no.92, Spring 2000, pp.98–127. Panhans-Buhler, Ursula. ‘Yayoi Kusama: between heaven and earth: this languid weight of life'. Parkett, no.59, 2000, pp.74–91. Pollock, Griselda. ‘Yayoi Kusama: three thoughts of feminity, creativity and elapsed time’. Parkett, no.59, 2000, pp.107–23. Solomon, Andrew. ‘Dot dot dot: Yayoi Kusama’. Artforum, vol.35, no.6, February 1997, pp.66–73, 100, 104, 109. Turner, Grady. ‘Yayoi Kusama’. Bomb, no.66, Winter 1999, pp.62–9. Walsh, Maria. ‘Obsession’. Art Monthly, no.234, March 2000, pp.7–10. Wye, Pamela. ‘Yayoi Kusama: in between the outside and inside’. M/E/A/N/I/N/G, no.15, May 1994, pp.37–41. Artists and Works Print friendly version