×This exhibition is no longer on view. See what’s on at SAM.
icon.
rebel.
visionary.
Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan’s most important contemporary artists. Experience her legendary 65-year career through multi-reflective installations, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and ephemera. Immerse in the infinite.
June 30 – September 10, 2017
#InfiniteKusama
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors is organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.
Lead Sponsors
The Herman and Faye Sarkowsky Exhibition Endowment
infinity rooms
In 1965, Kusama began utilizing mirrors to transcend the physical limitations of her own productivity and achieve the repetition that is crucial to her paintings and Accumulations. Sculptural, architectural, and performative, these installations blur the line between artistic disciplines and create a participatory experience by casting the visitor as the subject of the work.
“The positive and negative become one and consolidate my expression. And that is when I achieve obliteration.”
Infinity Mirrored Room–All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016.
“Thousands of illuminated colours blinking at the speed of light—isn’t this the very illusion of Life in our transient world?”
Infinity Mirrored Room–Love Forever, 1966/94.
“The red and green and yellow dots might represent the circle of the earth, or of the sun or moon, or whatever you like.”
The Obliteration Room, 2002-present, installed 2017.
“I want to live hidden in the world that lies midway between mystery and symbol.”
Infinity Mirrored Room–Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2016
“I wanted to examine the single dot that was my own life.”
Dots Obsession–Love Transformed into Dots, 2007.
“The result of the unlimited development of this obsessional art was that I was able to shed my painter’s skin and metamorphose into an environmental sculptor.”
Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room–Phalli’s Field, 1965.
accumulations
Kusama began making the Accumulations or “soft sculptures” in the early 1960s. They serve as important precursors to her Infinity Mirror Rooms. These works point to a crucial development that eventually transformed her process-based production from physical repetition to photographic reproduction to instantaneous reflection.
“I make them and make them and then keep on making them, until I bury myself in the process. I call this ‘obliteration’.”
Yayoi Kusama reclining on Accumulation No. 2 (1962), 1962.
“I am deeply interested in trying to understand the relationship between people, society, and nature; and my work is forged from accumulations of these frictions.”
Accumulation, 1962–64.
paintings
Kusama’s paintings embody the motifs echoed often throughout her work, giving evidence to the singular vision that has driven her over the course of her long career. Colors and patterns pulsate within the bordered spaces of her canvases. She was determined to incite experiences of immersion and boundlessness even in two dimensions.
“. . . producing the unique art that came from within myself was the most important thing I could do to build my life as an artist.”
Searching for Love, 2013.
“. . . the nets began to expand to infinity. I forgot about myself as they enveloped me, clinging to my arms and legs and clothes and filling the entire room.”
Infinity-Nets, 2005.
works on paper
Kusama’s works on paper first garnered attention in the United States in 1957, when she was the subject of a solo exhibition at Zoë Dusanne Gallery in Seattle. These early drawings are intimate, organic microcosms that the artist later expanded on in her Infinity Mirror Rooms.
“I thought of Seattle as only the first step in my reckless journey.”
Kusama with Zoë Dusanne at her solo exhibition at the Dusanne Gallery, Seattle, December 1957.
“My desire was to predict and measure the infinity of the unbounded universe, from my own position in it, with dots.”
Pacific Ocean, 1959.
“I want to lift my heart towards a brighter future, with a sense of reverence for human beings, asserting that we are much more than wretched insects in an unimaginably vast universe.”
The World of Insect, 1953.
Sources: Kusama, Yayoi. Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2011. Mika Yoshitake, “Infinity Mirrors: Doors or Perception,” in Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors, ed. Mika Yoshitake. Washington DC, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Delmonico Books • Prestel, 2017.
Images: Yayoi Kusama with recent works in Tokyo, 2016, Courtesy of the artist, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Tomoaki Makino. Infinity Mirrored Room—All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirror, plastic, black glass, LED, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore and Victoria Miro, London, © YAYOI KUSAMA. Infinity Mirrored Room—Love Forever, 1966/1994, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirrors, metal, and lightbulbs, 82 ¾ x 94 ½ x 80 ¾ in., Collection of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore. The Obliteration Room, 2002 to present, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, furniture, white paint, and dot stickers, dimensions variable, Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery, Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia, Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012, Collection: Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: QAGOMA Photography. Infinity Mirrored Room—Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, LED, black glass, and aluminum, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA. Dots Obsession—Love Transformed into Dots, 2007, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, mixed media installation, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Cathy Carver. Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, sewn stuffed cotton fabric, board, and mirrors, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York, © YAYOI KUSAMA, Photo: Cathy Carver. Yayoi Kusama reclining on Accumulation No. 2 (1962), 1962, visible in background are Accumulation of Faces No. 2 (1962) and posters for Tentoonstelling Nul at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, and Recent Painting: Yayoi Kusama at Stephen Radich Gallery, New York, 1961, Photo: Hal Reiff. Accumulation, 1962–64, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, sewn and stuffed fabric with paint on wood chair frame, 34 ½ x 38 x 33 in., The Rachofsky Collection and the Dallas Museum of Art through the DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund. Searching for Love, 2013, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, acrylic on canvas, Collection of Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London, ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Infinity-Nets, 2005, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, acrylic on canvas, 76 ½ x 76 ½ in., Collection of Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki. Kusama with Zoë Dusanne at her solo exhibition at the Dusanne Gallery, Seattle, December 1957. Pacific Ocean, 1959, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, watercolor on paper, 22 ½ x 27 ⅜ in., Takahashi Collection, Tokyo. The World of Insect, 1953, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese, b. 1929, ink, gouache, and pastel on paper, 8 ¾ x 7 ⅝ in., Collection of the artist.