Yayoi Kusama vs the Pop-Art Pirates
By Sarah Kennelly
When you google “pop art”, an assembly of white men line the screen. Artists like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg will appear before you as the so-called founders of the 1960s genre. As you scroll further down you will eventually come across Yayoi Kusama, who is seen as a background figure in the pop movement. What this quick search doesn’t tell you is that Kusama’s art was revolutionary, with many of these famed men taking inspiration from it. In fact, they loved it so much that they reimagined it and slapped their name on it.
Kusama’s true story is known to very few of her fans who seem to mostly enjoy the aesthetic value of her works. Today, she is one of the most successful artists of our time. Troves of people line up just to spend a few seconds in her colourful exhibitions. Her infinity rooms and polka-dotted pumpkins provide endless photo opportunities to brighten up our Instagram feeds. Yet, this shallow interpretation of her art only reinforces Kusama’s belief that this generation is inherently narcissistic. It fails to recognise the very real pain that is born from the artworks she creates.
Kusama suffered an abusive childhood in Japan that triggered unusual psychological issues. She began to see incessant hallucinations of polka dots that affected her sense of depth. This “depersonalization” disorder led her to feeling completely detached from reality. Art was a form of therapy where she sought to overcome these dizzy delusions and anchor herself to the real world. Drawing her famous polka-dots would allow her to step outside of her mental illness and explore concepts such as existentialism and the universe. This made her work entirely unique, which is why so many were compelled to imitate it.
At the time, this was not a worthy career for women in Japan, heightening tensions in her home. She craved freedom from and fled to America in search of a new life. However, she quickly learned that New York City was not the land of opportunity that Hollywood cinema had promised. Post-war anti-Japanese sentiment was rife, making many figures in the art industry hostile to her arrival. The male-dominated art scene also made it increasingly difficult to make her mark as a young woman.
Despite this, Kusama’s art was intriguing to many artists who quietly praised her work in private. They were fascinated by the repetitive techniques and interesting mediums she worked with. In fact, Andy Warhol called her work “fantastic” and drew inspiration from it to create his most famous piece “Campbell Soup Cans”. He gave no credit to Kusama as he skyrocketed to fame for his “groundbreaking” art style. Similarly, Oldenburg took the credit for her creation of soft sculpture art shortly after he attended one of her failed exhibitions. Although she ran in the same circle as these revered artists, her creations failed to garner any recognition. She lamented the meteoric rise of pop-artists as she watched from the sidelines.
The consistent imitation of her work plunged her into a deep depression as she withdrew from the art scene. This betrayal took a toll on Kusama who attempted suicide twice in the aftermath. After years of rejection in New York, she returned to Japan and checked herself into a psychiatric institute, where she remains today. Here, she participated in artistic therapy that helped to stabilise her mental illness.
Despite her condition, Kusama never gave up on her dream of becoming a world-renowned artist. She pushed her way back into the art world very literally when she arrived at the Venice Biennale uninvited to sell her art. After many years of hard work and new creations, she would be invited back to feature in the exhibition.
Now, museums are fighting to get their hands on her installations, eager to showcase the genius that is Yayoi Kusama. She has become the face of art for our generation, spawning loyal fandoms and fashion trends. However, this fame is well over-due and should have been afforded to her work 60 years ago. The art industry turned their backs on Kusama whilst holding the door open for the white men that rebranded her work. It would be an injustice to remember her art as something that burst onto the scene in recent years. Kusama’s legacy is one that has impacted artists from the 1960s to present day.