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Applause - 7-6-2018 - Infinity Mirror Rooms Share Yayoi Kusama's Visions at Cleveland Museum of Art
"I would love for people to just step back and not take photos," said Mika Yoshitake, exhibit curator from the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. "Try to just experience the rooms as is."
While photos of the artwork on social media recently propelled Kusama's popularity, she has spent a lifetime creating and continues working at 89 years old. This exhibit spotlights her body of work.
"Kusama has been at the forefront of artistic innovation ever since she started," said Reto Thüring, Cleveland Museum of Art's outgoing curator of contemporary art. "That makes her a very unique and unusual artist, basically developing a practice that includes performance, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, really everything."
From a very young age, Kusama was determined to create, even when that put her at odds with others.
"She was born in the late 20s, and the expectation was that she would get married and have kids. And not just get married, but have an arranged marriage, which was not something she wanted to do," said Heather Lenz, the filmmaker behind the documentary, "Kusama - Infinity."
She made her way to the United States in the late 1950s to pursue her art career, but that came with different challenges.
July 6, 2018