Love Forever: The Genius of Kusama Yayoi

Inspired by the Muse

As she approaches her 88th birthday (in March 2017), Kusama Yayoi is not merely active but more prolifically creative than ever, applying herself to her work with an almost preternatural concentration. Distinctive features of her recent paintings are a sense of composition absent from her earlier all-over style and the appearance of representational subject matter. In addition, the boldly colored series My Eternal Soul—a sharp departure from the monochrome world of her Infinity Nets—positions Kusama as a truly outstanding colorist. A warm, casual intimacy is also on display, both in her self-portraits and in her treatment (expressive of a new pop sensibility) of such everyday objects as hats, eyeglasses, coffee cups, and handbags. One might also call attention to the integration of sketchy and finished brushwork techniques seen in her recent paintings.

To watch Kusama at work in her studio is to witness a process that can only be described as mystical. There is no hint of trial-and-error in her approach to painting. She has no need of preliminary studies or underdrawings but proceeds straight to the final product without hesitation. Her hand moves over the canvas in a manner that appears at first arbitrary and then necessary, as if linked to cosmic forces.

The Yellow that I Love, 2016. From the series My Eternal Soul. (© Yayoi Kusama)

I have heard of a televised interview Kusama gave from her studio as she prepared to begin work on a new canvas. Asked what she was going to paint, she replied, “Ask my hands.” Such a remark evokes the technique of automatism that the surrealists embraced as a way of bypassing the conscious mind and directly accessing the subconscious. However, there is nothing random or accidental in Kusama’s art. It is true that she does no advance planning, but the moment her brush touches the canvas, she can clearly visualize the finished product, and her brush moves continuously as she works, producing one highly original image after another. It is the very picture of an artist inspired by the Muse.

Kusama’s recent paintings seem to alternate between the forthright, whimsical innocence of children’s art and the eerie ambience of an alien spirit world. The same ambiguity imbues much of her sculpture. In her giant flowers, for example, the fanciful vision of a garden in Shangri-La exists side by side with the macabre, almost diabolically fleshy feel of a carnivorous plant.

Kusama herself has said that the devil is both her enemy and her comrade-in-arms. Deep in the heart of her creative genius lurk riddles that continue to resist easy answers. We can be certain only that the whimsical yet disturbing world of Kusama Yayoi will continue to mystify and enchant people for generations to come.