Artwork: Hannah Lui
The Broad in Los Angeles, The Tate in London, The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Visit any one of these reputable museums and you will witness the breadth and ingenuity of Yayoi Kusama’s artwork. A multidisciplinary artist from Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama has worked continuously to create an admirable career that has earned her international recognition and admiration. Her work has inspired other notable artists of the century such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, and she’s followed guidance from Georgia O’Keeffe.
Despite her extraordinary influence, Kusama is not loved by all as she has sparked intense criticism for racist comments and offensive depictions of the Black community.
Born on March 22, 1929, Kusama had unsteady relationships with her parents and experienced hallucinations growing up. At 13 years old, she worked in a military factory during World War II. These experiences inspired various aspects of her later artwork and art served as a cathartic outlet for her frustrations. Kusama studied Nihonga, a traditional Japanese painting style, for a year at the Kyoto City University of Arts. She presented six solo exhibitions in Japan before moving to New York. Motivated by the growing amount of American abstract works, she left Japan in 1958 and embraced less conservative art styles of the time, later becoming a leader of the avant-garde movement.
A pioneer of contemporary compositions, Kusama pushes boundaries for both types of art and the content behind them. Her works explore themes of sexuality, feminism, mental health, surrealism, and more. Some of her most famous pieces are her reflective “Infinity Rooms,” typically filled with her signature polka dots and repetitive patterns. She quickly became a leader and respected figure in the avant-garde movement and has revolutionized the art scene as a whole. Kusama has paved the way for women, especially women of color, in the art world. Her innovative use of various mediums and emphasis on interactive art has inspired other artists to create works that transgress conventional standards. An international sensation, Kusama’s impact is also commemorated in the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and her work is displayed in notable museums all over the world.
Along with her contributions to creating gender equity in the art world, some have credited Kusama as a strong advocate for racial solidarity due to her protests against the glorification of White artists in both Japan and the United States. However, many of her actions and writings contradict that title. According to Hyperallergic Magazine, an online publication focused on analyzing modern art, in her 2002 autobiography, Infinity Net, Kusama “consistently wrote about Black people as primitive, hyper-sexualized beings.” She describes her previous neighborhood of residence in New York as a “slum” that continuously lost market value due to “black people shooting each other out front, and homeless people sleeping there.” Her novel, The Hustler’s Grotto of Christopher Street, “is full of grotesque and voyeuristic depictions of Black characters’ smell and genitalia.” In the script for Tokyo Leee, Kusama describes a Black character as a “WILD-looking, hairy, coal-black savage”, but describes a White character simply with “blonde hair and blue eyes.” Her perpetuation of Black stereotypes and dehumanization in her writing limits the extent of her “efforts” to combat racial inequality.
Despite Kusama’s global fame, she has faced little public criticism for these aspects of her career. In the English translation of Infinity Net, the sentence describing Black people was omitted displaying an effort to purify Kusama’s image. Kusama’s problematic behaviors do not negate the positive influences her work has made and some may argue that people should be able to separate the art from the artist. However consumers and creators themselves have a responsibility to hold other artists accountable for their actions so that their work can be truly appreciated by all audiences. Kusama remains one of the most influential artists of her time, however to accurately portray her legacy, all aspects of her career must be properly addressed by the art world.