| Yayoi Kusama / Louis Vuitton |
The origin of artworks by Yayoi Kusama is a hallucination which took place at a dining room: the red flower patterns on the tablecloth started to spread across the walls, the floor and on herself. The artist, born in 1929 in Japan, seized all techniques (sculpture, painting, film-making, photography, and writing) to transcribe this disorientation. In the 1950’s, she made a name for herself with the Infinity Nets, the monochrome networks composed of a miniscule unique element repeated to infinity. In 1958 Yayoi Kusama settled in New York where she mixed with the avant-garde world and exhibited alongside Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Donald Judd. In her installations, she recovered everyday objects of soft prominent forms, and carried out performances in symbolic areas of the city. Since her return to Japan in 1973, the artist who describes herself as obsessive resides in a psychiatric hospital and goes to her studio everyday to create. Yayoi Kusama became famous tardily from the late 1980s and she showcased prestigious exhibitions, in particular at the Venice Biennale, the MOMA in New York and the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris. The travelling retrospective which is dedicated to her today confirms her status as an indispensable figure of contemporary art.
Marking the collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, this limited-edition monograph, with a cover exclusively designed for Louis Vuitton, presents an in-depth examination of the Japanese artist’s career and creative process. It features contributions from internationally renowned authors and curators, and includes many previously unpublished documents, photographs from the artist’s archives and reproductions of her original works.
Yayoi Kusama Monograph was edited by Louise Neri, published by Rizzoli NY in 2012. This exclusive edition is only available in Louis Vuitton stores for US$85.