Yellow tentacles adorned with rhythmic dots swirl through space, reflecting off mirrors and blurring boundaries at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. This mesmerising installation is the beating heart of a new exhibition honouring the late Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Originally planned as a career retrospective, the show evolved into a posthumous celebration following Yayoi’s death on 14 August at the age of 97. The tribute begins before visitors even cross the threshold; the artist's signature polka dots cascade across the museum’s facade and wrap around trees lining the adjacent Museum Square.
“We heard about her passing,” exhibition curator Leontine Coelewij explained. “We decided to make it really a tribute. A tribute to her life. Tribute to her work, so that everybody can see what she is ... to us. So many wonderful works.”
Inside, immersive displays include a monumental fibre-reinforced plastic pumpkin drenched in black dots. Painting these repetitive patterns was a method for the visionary creative to process childhood hallucinations.
“A lot of her work comes from these mental issues that she had,” Leontine shared. “I think she made something beautiful out of it for her. It was also a way to explore ideas about infinity.”
The artist enjoyed a deep connection to the Netherlands, thriving in Amsterdam’s 1960s counterculture. During a famous 1967 “happening,” she covered the naked body of Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven in painted dots. According to Leontine, the Japanese trailblazer felt remarkably at home in the liberal atmosphere.
For the show's crowning jewel, visitors ascend an escalator to the hallucinatory infinity room. It serves as a fitting finale for a creator who once noted she was “still fighting to the death for my art.”
“I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead,” Yayoi previously remarked.
Running until January 17, this showcase ensures her vibrant legacy will forever cover the universe.
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