Yayoi Kusama: ‘A letter from Georgia O’Keeffe gave me the courage to leave home’
The artist on a miserable childhood, moving from Japan to the US, and pumpkins
Rosanna Greenstreet
Saturday 21 May 2016
Born in Japan, Yayoi Kusama, 87, studied painting in Kyoto before moving to New York in 1957. She has staged polka-dot orgies and naked anti-tax protests; her work spans painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, as well as literature, fashion and product design. Her latest paintings, pumpkin sculptures and mirror rooms are showing at the Victoria Miro gallery in London from 25 May. Since 1977, she has lived voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital in Japan.