Source: The Japanese painter, performance artist and peacenik Yayoi Kusama poses at the opening of her Tate Modern exhibition in London, U.K., on Feb. 7, 2012. The show, a retrospective, runs through June 2012. Photographer: Lucy Dawkins/Tate via Bloomberg | Courtesy of © JAPAN Foward

Why Has the World Gone Dotty Over Yayoi Kusama?

How did a ninety-two year old woman who has been a virtual recluse in a Tokyo mental hospital since 1975 become “the world’s most popular artist”?

Peter Tasker, Arcus Research, for JAPAN Forward

Ask Mark Zuckerberg and Jay Powell.

It was thanks to COVID that I recently managed to view the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The event, which opened in the summer of 2021, had been fully booked until the closing date in March 2022.

With the Omicron variant ripping through the British population, persistent telephoning was finally rewarded. There had been a cancellation and a mid-afternoon slot was available.

I’m neither knowledgeable about contemporary art nor particularly enthusiastic. What fascinates me is the Kusama phenomenon itself. How did a ninety-two year old woman who has been a virtual recluse in a Tokyo mental hospital since 1975 become “the world’s most popular artist”.

That accolade was bestowed on her by The Art Newspaper in 2014 – and rightly so. Her “Infinite Obsession” retrospective in South and Central America attracted an exhibition attendance of over two million people.

A visitor walks through the art work ‘The Eternally Infinite Light of the Universe Illuminating the Quest for Truth’ by Yayoi Kusama part of retrospective exhibition, in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) | Courtesy of © JAPAN Forward

If anything, her stock has risen even higher since. In 2016, Time Magazine chose her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, alongside Barack Obama, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.

‘One Polka Dot’ at the Tate

On a freezing cold day in November 2017, five thousand New Yorkers lined up for several hours to enter two of her “Infinity Rooms” (mirrored spaces illuminated with various light sources). The time allotted each person for each box was thirty seconds.

Likewise, the wait time was several hours for “All the Eternal Love I Have For The Pumpkins”, her 2016 exhibition in London.

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