Yayoi Kusama documentary charts her turbulent rise to art icon

Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Thank you for signing up to Wallpaper. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
She’s the 89-year-old Japanese artist commanding blockbuster crowds around the world, with exhibition-goers queuing hours to experience her Infinity Mirror Rooms – Yayoi Kusama is as close to bonafide rock star status in the art world as it comes, with her own dedicated museum in Tokyo. Now, after seven decades of wooing audiences and critics alike with her polka-dot paintings and pumpkin sculptures, a new documentary film Kusama – Infinity finally attempts to encapsulate the renegade artist’s career, vision, and life in 76 minutes.
But where do you start with an artist – or any person for that matter – whose life has followed the dizzying trajectory of Kusama? Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, she was the youngest of four of an affluent but volatile family. Her parents were the product of an arranged marriage. Kusama’s adulterous father was largely absent, while her mother was a physically and emotionally abusive wife who would often send her daughter to spy on his sexual affairs. As a result, Kusama developed an aversion to sex and the male body as an adult (her only known romantic relationship – that with artist Joseph Cornell – was celibate).
At age ten, Kusama began experiencing vivid hallucinations, and started using watercolours, pastels and oils to paint polka dots and repeated net motifs to cope with her visions. The budding artist was just 13 years old when she was sent to work in a military factory sewing parachutes for Japan’s Second World War efforts. Her adolescent years were spent entombed in darkness as the sound of conflict raged outside, which would later compel Kusama to create several anti-war artworks.
Still, she channeled her relentless personal tumult to become the top-selling female artist in the world along the way – no easy feat given the gender and racial bias inherent in the art establishment. It was the artist Georgia O’Keefe who would inspire Kusama to relocate the US after the Japanese artist reached out to her by letter. In 1958, Kusama settled in New York, where her Infinity Net paintings garnered her critical acclaim.
Since 1977, she has voluntarily been living in a psychiatric asylum in Tokyo, working from her studio located opposite the hospital. Kusama’s practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, poetry, and performance art. Known for her outré personal style, the artist has also shown a keen interest in fashion. In the 1970s she made ‘orgy’ garments — to be worn by several people at once. More recently, her forays into fashion have included collaborations with the likes of Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.
Kusama – Infinity has been treated with deft sensitivity by director and producer Heather Lenz, who first became interested in the Japanese artist while studying art in the early 1990s. The film doesn’t gloss over Kusama’s hardships or paint her as a victim of her neurosis and adolescent traumas, and nor should it. If anything is to be gleaned from the documentary, Kusama is strong, savvy – a survivor who shaped an infinite universe of dots in her own image.
Kusama in her studio, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London; YAYOI KUSAMA Inc
INFORMATION
Kusama – Infinity is out in US cinemas now, and in UK theatres and on demand from 5 October. For more information, visit the Magnolia Pictures website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Reed Krakoff ushers John Hardy jewellery into a new era, and refreshes its New York store
The ‘Spear’ jewellery collection riffs on John Hardy’s signature handwoven chain, while the boutique nods to the brand’s Balinese heritage
By Pei-Ru Keh Published
-
New Aesop store in Rome opens, an ode to the Eternal City
At the new Aesop Via del Corso store in Rome, architect Jakob Sprenger hosted a celebratory event with Wallpaper*, including a panel discussion chaired by contributing editor Dal Chodha
By Simon Mills Published
-
Marc Newson on his electric hydrofoil collaboration with Fliteboard
The Fliteboard x Marc Newson eFoil promises a smooth surfing experience with cutting-edge materials and space-age design
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Heads up for London Film Festival 2023’s immersive art programme
From VR fungi to AR walks, London Film Festival 2023 announces LFF Expanded, a compelling programme of immersive art and extended realities
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Photographer David Abrahams captures quiet moments in Japan for his new London show
‘Kyushu’ is a new show from photographer David Abrahams that documents his trip to a town on the Japanese island
By Mary Cleary Published
-
John Waters on his weird and wonderful world, celebrated in new LA exhibition
The cult filmmaker invites us into his studio ahead of ‘John Waters: Pope of Trash’, at LA’s Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (from 17 September)
By Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Published
-
Asteroid City behind the scenes: How the world fell under Wes Anderson’s retro-tinted spell
We peek behind the scenes of Wes Anderson’s new film Asteroid City, and explore how the world has gone barmy for the American filmmaker’s pastel-hued aesthetic
By Jessica Klingelfuss Last updated
-
Steve McQueen to screen his harrowing film 'Grenfell' at London’s Serpentine
Acclaimed film director and artist Steve McQueen will screen his film, Grenfell, at London’s Serpentine South gallery (7 April-10 May 2023), six years after the Grenfell Tower block blaze killed 72
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Nan Goldin documentary is a gritty tale of addiction, resilience, and battles with the Sackler family
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras chronicles acclaimed photographer Nan Goldin’s complex life, work, and tireless activism to hold power to account
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Hiroshi Sugimoto: ‘The deeper I explore Shinto and Buddhist art, the more it reveals the shallowness of contemporary art’
‘Hiroshi Sugimoto – The Descent of the Kasuga Spirit’, at the Kasuga-Taisha shrine in Nara, Japan, sees the acclaimed photographer draw on Japan’s spiritual past and present
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
Artist’s Palate: Chiharu Shiota’s recipe for okonomiyaki
Get tangled up in Chiharu Shiota’s recipe for okonomiyaki, from our January 2023 issue’s Artist’s Palate feature, a Wallpaper* homage to our favourite contemporary art
By TF Chan Published