Yayoi Kusama (Kusama Yayoi 草間彌生)

Japanese, b. 1929

BiographyYayoi Kusama was born 22 March 1929, in Japan. After graduating from high school, Kusama took classes at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. In the early '50s she began showing her work in juried exhibitions, and had her first solo exhibition in 1952. In 1955 Kusama's work was included in an international watercolor exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. That same year Kusama sent letters and a selection of her watercolors to Georgia O'Keeffe, in New Mexico, and to Kenneth Callahan, a painter, in Seattle. As a result of her correspondence with Callahan, Kusama was offered a show in Seattle in 1957. Kusama came to Seattle for the opening, and from there made her way to New York, where she arrived in 1958. By 1959 Kusama had her first solo exhibition in New York, and the large net paintings that she exhibited were favorably reviewed. During the early and mid '60s Kusama was included in numerous group shows in the United States and Europe, and she also had a series of solo shows, including the 1963-64 Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show at the Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York; and the 1964 Driving Image Show and 1965 Floor Show at the Richard Castllane Gallery, New York. In addition to exhibiting her sculptural work, Kusama also began to create complete environments.

Starting in 1967 she became involved in performance-based work, and by the late '60s the happenings in which she participated were receiving much more attention in the popular press than in the art magazines that had previously reviewed her work. In the early '70s Kusama traveled between Japan and the United States several times, and she eventually remained in Japan. During the mid '70s Kusama was hospitalized for psychological problems, and in 1977 she took up long-term residence at the Seiwa Hospital in Tokyo, where she set up a studio and has continued her work as an artist.