The Feed.
Yayoi Kusama:
A Retrospective
Art is fashion
Text: HELEN PAPAIOANNOU
Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin is hosting a rich and inviting show that rounds up the massive work by iconic artist Yayoi Kusama. Being one of the world’s most important contemporary artists, her exhibition called Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective, offers an overview of the key periods in her oeuvre, which spans more than 70 years, and feature a number of current works as well as her new Infinity Mirror Room.
Starting from her early paintings and accumulative sculptures to her immersive, complete environments, while exploring her lesser-known artistic activity in Germany and Europe, the retrospective features nearly 300 works from the last 80 years, spread across 3000 square meters of pure delight. Subtitled “A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe”, the exhibition spans gouaches on paper, accumulative sculptures, happenings and the great artist’s fashion work.
The immersive installation of her newly completed Mirror Room is shown alongside a reconstruction of the artist’s first Infinity Mirror Room, that was first presented in New York in 1965.
“I am delighted that my retrospective exhibition will be held at the wonderful Gropius Bau … This is an exhibition that I will remember for the rest of my life. I thank you with all my heart, love and hope,” says Yayoi Kusama, an always fresh artistic voice that, with her self-portraits, in some ways prefigured the self-staging of today’s social media!
Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective is curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of the Gropius Bau, in close collaboration with the artist and her studio in Tokyo, Japan. The exhibition draws extensively on Kusama’s personal archive which Rosenthal and the exhibition team visited in person.
This is an exhibition that I will remember for the rest of my life. I thank you with all my heart, love and hope,
YAYOI KUSAMA
Until August 15, 2021
