The first in a long series of environments—and the one in which Kusama improvised her first happenings— this iconic work solidified her research, and set forth the major themes (repetition, accumulation, illusion, infinity) and visual characteristics of her vocabulary (colored polka dots, mirrors, organic forms) that she would continue to explore obsessively. The floor of this closed space, accessible by a single door, lis strewn with many phallic, tuber-like forms of varying dimensions. Made of padded white fabric covered in red polka dots, they are reflected infinitely in the mirrors installed on the side walls. Submerged in this coloured landscape, the viewer becomes the subject, caught in an intense and unique sensory experience.
© 2019 Yayoi Kusama © Fondation Louis Vuitton / Marc Domage
After studying Nihonga, traditional Japanese painting, Yayoi Kusama left Japan in the mid-1950s for the United States, where she rapidly established herself as a leading figure of the New York avant-garde.
Embodying the spirit of the 1960s, her groundbreaking and unclassifiable work challenged the dominant aesthetic of the day, asserting great formal liberty through the use of multiple media, including painting, sculpture, video, installation, environment, and performance.
Cypress, 1980
Joan Mitchell
Sans titre, 1990
Raymond Hains
"Monument" for V. Tatlin, 1964
Dan Flavin
23.2.08 Grauwald, 2008
Gerhard Richter
17.2.08 Grauwald, 2008
Gerhard Richter
Peinture, 290 x 520 cm, 22 Mai 2002, 2002
Pierre Soulages
21.2.08 Grauwald, 2008
Gerhard Richter
9.3.08 Grauwald, 2008
Gerhard Richter
22.2.08 (Grauwald), 2008
Gerhard Richter
Untitled (for you, Leo, in long respect and affection) 1, 1977
Dan Flavin
29. April '05, 2005
Gerhard Richter
"Monument" for V. Tatlin, 1967
Dan Flavin
