Yayoi Kusama. Sabatini Building, Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 11 May – 18 September 2011
The Madrid exhibition of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, revealing the quintessence of her creative career and demonstrating the significant place it holds in the history of late 20th-century art, is also a testimony to her uncompromising nature and approach to art. Born in 1928 in Matsumoto, Yayoi Kusama came to New York in 1958, becoming one of the most vivid and extravagant figures on the city's art scene of the time. Captured in photographs, her Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge happenings which saw Kusama paint naked human bodies with black polka dots are now considered as some of the most iconic moments in the art life of her day. Polka dots, covering the planes of her paintings and walls, ceilings, floors and objects of her installations, became the hallmark of Kusama's art.
In 1973, suffering from health problems, Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan where she has been a voluntary in-patient of a mental hospital since 1975. Her hospital room, 12 square metres in size, features no furniture apart from a bed. Every morning after breakfast the artist leaves the hospital to work at her nearby studio. According to Kusama, if it was not for her art, she would have committed suicide long ago.
Today Kusama's works (paintings, environmental installations, collages, sculptures and performances) are part of the gold standard of contemporary art. Her art has always been based on conceptualism, rich in references to Minimalism, Surrealism, feminism, Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism. Kusama's shows are always a visually shocking and exciting experience for art lovers. For the most part, she is said to find inspiration in her hallucinations which she has been experiencing since childhood. According to Yayoi Kusama, art is a manifestation of her illness - in a way, it is a translation of her mental condition.
52 Plaza Santa Isabel
www.museoreinasofia.es
SHARE:
ABOUT US • CONTACTS • RSS • FOLLOW US: 
ENG LAT
© anothertravelguide.com 2015
Anothertravelguide.com is an internet resource for independent travellers. All addresses listed on anothertravelguide.com - hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. have been tested and evaluated by our authors. All opinions are subjective and anothertravelguide.com takes no responsibility if any of these locations don't live up to your personal expectations, taste or mood, or has undergone serious changes since visited by authors and experts of anothertravelguide.com.