Yayoi KusamaYayoi Kusama - Big Black Dots
About the Item
- Creator:Yayoi Kusama (1929, Japanese)
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 7.88 in (20 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Central, HK
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2388214166432
Yayoi Kusama
Widely inspirational and innovative artist Yayoi Kusama has a body of work that is exceptionally varied, ranging from graphic prints and paintings to polka-dot pumpkin sculptures, hypnotic collages, large-scale installations and fashion design.
Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve likely experienced Kusama’s art — or have seen it on Instagram. Her soft sculptures and dazzling “Infinity Mirrors” are the stuff of selfie-takers’ dreams, but Kusama’s impressive decades-long career certainly holds far more cachet than it does fodder for today’s aspiring social-media influencers.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama has worked with her signature polka dots since the age of 10, when she began to experience vivid hallucinations and claimed that patterns and dots were moving around her, swallowing up everything in view. She started to incorporate them into her paintings as a child. Kusama saw circular forms and nets on every surface and became especially fascinated with the pebbles that lined the bottom of the creek near her childhood home. Her family was sternly opposed to her art and her mother physically abused Kusama and discouraged her at a very early age. She has suffered psychological turmoil her whole life and is vocal about her mental illness. Today, Kusama is a voluntary resident at a psychiatric facility in Tokyo, and she calls her work “art medicine.”
At the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama trained in Nihonga, a traditional style of Japanese painting that originated during the Meiji period. On advice she solicited from painter Georgia O'Keeffe, a pioneer of modernism in America whom she greatly admired, she subsequently moved to New York City in 1958. There, Kusama flourished, creating prescient sculptures and large-scale monochrome paintings that bridged current styles with minimalism, which hadn’t yet achieved any kind of prominence as an art movement. She pushed boundaries with her “Accumulations” series, which saw her transforming found furniture pieces into sexualized objects, as well as with an avant-garde staging of theatrical orgies on the street — both stemming from her anxieties about sex as well as an endeavor to make a feminist statement about patriarchal authority and sexism.
Kusama was captivated by Surrealists as well as the Abstract Expressionists and greatly influenced the Pop artists who followed, befriending such icons as Donald Judd — who called her work “the best paintings being done” — and Andy Warhol, with whom she exhibited and later accused of stealing her ideas. Kusama moved with ease through artistic circles and made a point to draw attention to her “otherness” as a Japanese woman by wearing kimonos to her openings.
In 2021, Kusama brought her floral and vegetal sculptures to the New York Botanical Garden and her works can be found in the collections of many of the world’s top museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. She famously collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2012, and she created a 34-foot-tall balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan in 2019, becoming the first female artist to design a work for the event. In addition to her visual artwork, Kusama is a writer, publishing poetry, novels and an autobiography.
Find a collection of Yayoi Kusama art on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Central, Hong Kong
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Yoshitomo Nara - Miss Forest Snow Globe / Dome, 2023By Yoshitomo NaraLocated in Central, HKYoshitomo Nara Miss Forest Snow Globe / Dome, 2023 Resin and glass 4 1/10 × 2 2/5 in | 10.5 × 6.2 cm Yoshitomo Nara’s deceptively simple paintings, sculptures, and drawings draw on the pop culture aesthetics of manga, Walt Disney cartoons, and punk rock. The artist populates his work with alternately adorable and sinister child characters, who run amok in flat backgrounds rendered with simple bold lines and solid hues. Nara explores imagination and the individual, and his more complex canvases consider the intersection of figure and ground. Nara received his MFA from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and has exhibited in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and beyond. His work belongs to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Rubell Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, the Long Museum, the Aomori Museum of Art, and many other collections. Nara’s paintings...Category
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsGlass, Resin, Wood
- Keith Haring - Child Chaise Chair, 2019By Keith HaringLocated in Central, HKOne of Keith Haring’s iconic and energetic figures that appeared in many of his paintings and sculptures during the 1980s is interpreted by French b...Category
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsWood
- Charles and Ray Eames - Dot Pattern Skateboard Deck (Red)By Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Central, HKCharles and Ray Eames Dot Pattern Skateboard Deck, 2023 Maple wood. Raised-ink print of Dot Pattern on bottom with a dark maple veneer and archival print on top. 31 1/2 × 7 9/10 in ...Category
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsWood, Maple
- Charles and Ray Eames - Dot Pattern Skateboard Deck (Cream)By Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Central, HKCharles and Ray Eames Dot Pattern Skateboard Deck, 2023 Maple wood. Raised-ink print of Dot Pattern on bottom with a dark maple veneer and archival print on top. 31 1/2 × 7 9/10 in ...Category
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsWood, Maple
- Keith Haring - Art Is For Everybody, 2023By Keith HaringLocated in Central, HKKeith Haring Art Is For Everybody, 2023 7 ply Grade A Canadian Maple wood (Set of 4) 31 1/2 × 7 9/10 in 80 × 20 cm (each)Category
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsWood
- Yoshitomo Nara - Welcome GirlBy Yoshitomo NaraLocated in Central, HKYoshitomo Nara Welcome Girl, 2017 Silkscreen print on 7-ply Canadian maple, hardwood skate deck. 31 1/2 × 8 in | 80 × 20.3 cmCategory
2010s Mixed Media
MaterialsWood
- Poem for a TreeBy Mark Beltchenko StudioLocated in Grosse Pointe Park, MIMy dedication to addressing environmental concerns through my sculpture has long been a subject for my work. By using my artistic voice to draw attention to the pressing issues facing our planet, I'm hoping to inspire change and raise awareness among viewers. The fabrication of the stretcher from brass and aluminum highlights my intentionality in material choice, symbolizing the intersection of human industry and natural resources. This juxtaposition of man-made materials with the organic form of the tree log creates a striking visual contrast that prompts viewers to consider the relationship between human activity and the environment. The use of a naturally hollowed tree...Category
2010s Symbolist Still-life Sculptures
MaterialsBrass
- "Murel", from the Series "Restful home"By Kim Jeong YeonLocated in Palm Beach, FLKim Jeong Yeon - Contemporary Conceptual Korean painter and installation Artist, based in Seoul South Korea. Kim is recognized for her installations ...Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Paintings
MaterialsStone
- Fire XLocated in New York, NYMs. Wen resides in New York City as a full-time artist. She has exhibited nationally and internationally since the early 1980s. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her BFA from Washington State University, MA, and MFA from the State University of New York at Albany. In 1979, she won the First Prize in Painting in the Ten Outstanding Young Talents Competition in Taiwan. In 1980, she was awarded Outstanding Merit in the Young Artists in Asia Now competition in Hong Kong. In 1995 and 1996, her work was selected in many national and international jury shows, including the ninth and tenth Parkside National Small Print Exhibition. Large Small Work '95' International, Small Works International, First Annual National Juried Small Work Exhibition in New York, NY. These shows are highly competitive and are chosen from thousands of submissions. Leigh won the SUNY Albany Purchase Award in 1995 and the University of Wisconsin Purchase Award in the 1995 Parkside National Small Print Exhibition. She was also awarded an Artist Grant by the National Taiwan Art...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsCanvas, Wood, Paint, Mixed Media, Oil, Acrylic
- VincentLocated in Miami, FLFrench designer and graphic artist Stéphane Gautier draws on a unique talent for deciphering symbols and images in his art and transforming them into ...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsSteel
- "Hidden Movements, " Mixed Media Mosaic, 2023Located in Chicago, ILMonochromatic, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the tech...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric More Art
MaterialsMarble
- "Spring, " Mixed Media Mosaic, 2021Located in Chicago, ILIntricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Clas...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract More Art
MaterialsMarble