Yayoi Kusama: I WANT YOUR TEARS TO FLOW WITH THE WORDS I WROTE

Installation view, Yayoi Kusama: I WANT YOUR TEARS TO FLOW WITH THE WORDS I WROTE, David Zwirner, New York, 2021

My entire life has been painted here.
Every day, any day.
I will never cease dedicating my whole life
to my love for the universe.
Oh my dearest art.
With the challenge of creating new art, I work as if dying;
these works are my everything.

—Yayoi Kusama, 2020

Yayoi Kusama, MAY YOU WHO PASSED AWAY DISPLAY YOUR BEAUTY FOREVER, 2020 (detail)

Yayoi Kusama, GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE FOREVER CRYING OUT FOR PEACE, 2020 (detail)

“My Eternal Soul is a luminous hymn to life, a vision that could be described as cosmic, microscopic, or, depending on your point of view, otherworldly.”

—Akira Tatehata, 2021

Yayoi Kusama working on My Eternal Soul paintings in her studio, Tokyo, 2014

Conveying the extraordinary vitality that characterizes Kusama’s oeuvre, each painting is an innovative exploration of form, subject matter, and space, in which abstract and figurative elements combine to offer impressions of both microscopic and macroscopic universes.

Yayoi Kusama

I WHO DISCOVERED A DREAM OF LOVE, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

Yayoi Kusama

PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR LOVE WITH HEAVENLY BEAUTY, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

Installation view, Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective – A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe, Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2021

Recent My Eternal Soul paintings are also featured in Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective – A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe, on view at Gropius Bau in Berlin through August 15, 2021. The exhibition surveys key periods in Kusama’s career of more than seventy years, and features early paintings and accumulative sculptures as well as immersive environments and recent paintings.

“Her artistic position is characterized by revolutionary interventions driven by the desire for an immersive union of body and artwork.… The striving to be in the picture is central to Kusama’s oeuvre.”

—Stephanie Rosenthal, 2021

Yayoi Kusama

A SCENE I PAINTED ON CHANCING UPON MY OWN DEATH, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

Yayoi Kusama

THE RADIANCE I PAINTED FACING SUICIDE, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

“You can dive into the vertiginous delights of dots and infinite reflection at Kusama: Cosmic Nature, an expansive show of outdoor sculptures, along with special gallery exhibits and installations, set among the flowering cherries of the New York Botanical Garden.… The overall idea of setting Kusama’s repetitive dots against the teeming profusion of a botanical garden is inspired.”

—Will Heinrich, The New York Times, 2021

Kusama: Cosmic Nature is on view through October 31, 2021, at the New York Botanical Garden.

Installation view, Kusama: Cosmic Nature, New York Botanical Garden, 2021

“When I start the paintings my mind is completely empty.… When I was young, maybe ten years old, I started to make art like this from my mind.… I still want to find out new things from my work. It’s a spiritual energy that I need.… I am always thinking about the cosmos when I start a painting.”

—Yayoi Kusama, 2016

Installation view, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms, Tate Modern, London, 2021

On view at Tate Modern in London through June 12, 2022, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms presents two of the artist’s famous immersive installations: Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life and Chandelier of Grief.

Yayoi Kusama, HUMANITY'S FIERY SPIRIT IS MANIFEST AT CARNIVAL, LET US PRAY FOR PEACE AND, YES, IGNITE MORE FLAMES, 2020 (detail)

Yayoi Kusama, I SING MY ETERNAL SPIRIT, 2020 (detail)

Every Day I Pray for Love, Kusama’s most personal book to date, brings us into her private world through poetic recollections, giving insight into her creative process and the essential role language plays in her paintings, sculptures, and daily life.

Yayoi Kusama

I WHO ASPIRED TO THE BEAUTY OF A BRILLIANT RED SUNSET GLOW, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

Yayoi Kusama

TO THE BEAUTY OF LIVING, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches (100 x 100 cm)

Yayoi Kusama, TOGETHER WITH GOD, MY SPIRIT WAS PRAYING FOR LIFE, 2020 (detail)

Yayoi Kusama, AT A TURNING POINT IN LIFE I PONDERED HOW TO LIVE, 2020 (detail)

“The current work reveals Kusama’s marvelous talent as a colorist.… Viewers are naturally attracted by the great capacity of these paintings for embracing different aspects of the world.”

—Akira Tatehata, Yayoi Kusama: I Who Have Arrived in Heaven, 2014

Installation view, Yayoi Kusama: I Want Your Tears to Flow with the Words I Wrote, Victoria Miro, London, 2021

Concurrent exhibitions of the artist’s My Eternal Soul paintings go on view this month at Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, and Victoria Miro, London.

Yayoi Kusama in front of her My Eternal Soul paintings

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