28 May 2012

Now that, at the ripe age of 83, she has designed a limited edition for Louis Vuitton everyone is going to discover her and her immense talent. Among those who are already familiar with her work, however, there are going to be some – we can bet on it – who will turn up their noses at this commercial collaboration, probably ignorant of the fact that as far back as the late sixties Yayoi Kusama was making and selling clothes with her Kusama Fashion Company, and there was even a “Kusama Corner” at Bloomingdale’s. The greatest living Japanese artist is not lacking recognition (in the form of exhibitions at the right museums and record auction prices), but her name is certainly not as well known as that of a Hirst or a Koons – I checked this out by taking a quick pole among friends who’re not involved with the artworld. To get ready for her well-deserved breakthrough into the mainstream, a visit to the moving (and comprehensive) exhibition at the Tate Modern, on until June 5, is de rigueur. As is her autobiography, where, once again, Kusama leaves us breathless: “My destiny is to make art […] which gives meaning to death, tracing the beauty of colors and space in the silence of death’s footsteps and the ‘nothingness’ it promises.”

Photo: Caroline Corbetta

Photo: Caroline Corbetta

Photo: Caroline Corbetta

Yayoi Kusama