The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden presents an extraordinary exhibition that explores the evolution of the celebrated Yayoi Kusama’s immersive, kaleidoscopic Infinity Mirror Rooms, alongside a selection of her other key works, some never before seen in the U.S.
Dots Obsession – Love Transformed Into Dots, 2007, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Mixed media installation.
Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York., © Yayoi Kusama
Photo by Cathy Carver
Visitors will have the unprecedented opportunity to discover six of Kusama’s captivating Infinity Mirror, as well as large-scale paintings, whimsical installations, sculpture and rare archival material from her 65-year-career. From her radical performances in the 1960’s, when she staged underground polka dot “Happenings” on the streets of New York, to her latest Infinity Mirror Room, “All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” (2016), the Hirshhorn exhibition will showcase Kusama’s full range of talent for the first time in D.C.
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
Wood, mirror, plastic, black glass, LED
Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore and Victoria Miro, London. © Yayoi Kusama
“Yayoi Kusama, who, at this stage of her career, is a worldwide phenomenon, has the ability to inspire audiences of all ages with the power of her art. It is a privlege and an honor to collaborate with our four partnering institutions to offer audiences across North America the opportunity to experience more than six decades of her artistic output,” said Melissa Chiu, the Hirshhorn’s director.
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
Wood, mirror, plastic, black glass, LED
Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore and Victoria Miro, London. © Yayoi Kusama
“Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors” will travel to five major museums in the United States and Canada, including the Seattle Art Museum (June 30–Sept. 10, 2017), The Broad in Los Angeles (Oct. 21, 2017–Jan. 1, 2018), the Art Gallery of Ontario(March 3—May 27, 2018), the Cleveland Museum of Art (July 9–Sept. 30, 2018), and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (Nov. 18, 2018–Feb. 17, 2019)
Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic panel, rubber, LED lighting system, acrylic balls, and water, 113 1/4 x 163 1/2 x 163 1/2 in.
Courtesy of David Zwirner, N.Y. © Yayoi Kusama
Photo by Cathy Carver
Organized in loose thematic order, “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors” begins with the artist’s milestone installation “Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field” (1965/2016), a dense and dizzying field of hundreds of red-spotted phallic tubers in a room lined with mirrors.
The exhibition will also include “Infinity Mirror Room—Love Forever” (1966/1994), a hexagonal chamber into which viewers will be able to peer from the outside, seeing colored flashing lights that reflect endlessly from ceiling to floor. The work is a re-creation of Kusama’s legendary 1966 mirror room “Kusama’s Peep Show” (no longer extant), in which the artist used to stage group performances in her studio in the late 1960s.
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2017
Left to right: Blue Spots, 1965; Flowers – Overcoat, 1964; A Snake, 1974; Ennui, 1976; Accumulation, 1962-64; Red Stripes, 1965; Arm Chair, 1963
Photo by Cathy Carver
Kusama’s signature bold polka dots will be featured in “Dots Obsession—Love Transformed into Dots” (2007), a domed mirror room surrounded by inflatables suspended from the ceiling. More recent spectacular LED environments, filled with lanterns or crystalline balls that seem to extend into infinite space, will be represented by “Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” (2009) and “Souls of Millions of Light Years Away” (2013).
“As Yayoi Kusama’s work is realized in different spaces, each venue will offer a unique sensory journey through Kusama’s world,” said Hirshhorn Associate Curator Mika Yoshitake, who organized the exhibition. “When visitors explore the exhibition, they will inevitably become part of the works themselves, challenging their preconceived notions of autonomy, time and space.”
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2017
Left to right: Ennui, 1976; Accumulation, 1962-64; Red Stripes, 1965; Arm Chair, 1963
Photo by Cathy Carver
A selection of more than 60 paintings, sculptures and works on paper will also be on view, showcasing many of Kusama’s lesser-known collages, made after her return to Japan in 1973. These works trace the artist’s trajectory from her early surrealist works on paper, Infinity Net paintings and Accumulation assemblages to recent paintings and soft sculptures, highlighting recurring themes of nature and fantasy, utopia and dystopia, unity and isolation, obsession and detachment, and life and death.
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2017. Life (Repetitive Vision), 1998
Photo by Cathy Carver
The exhibition will conclude with Kusama’s iconic participatory installation “The Obliteration Room” (2002), an all-white replica of a traditional domestic setting. Upon entering, visitors will be invited to cover every surface of the furnished gallery with multicolored polka dot stickers, gradually engulfing the entire space in pulsating color.
Kusama’s 8-foot-tall “Pumpkin” stands watch over the Hirshhorn’s central Plaza, greeting visitors in its U.S. museum debut. Its surreal scale and bold yellow-and-black pattern embody two of Kusama’s most recognized motifs: pumpkisn and polka-dots.
Following its D.C. debut, the exhibition will embark on the most significant North American tour of Kusama’s work in nearly two decades through 2019.
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2017
Left to right: Living on the Yellow Land, 2015; My Adolescence in Bloom, 2014; Welcoming the Joyful Season, 2014; Surrounded by Heartbeats, 2014; Unfolding Buds, 2015; Story After Death, 2014
Photo by Cathy Carver
Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, LED, black glass, and aluminum
Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York. © Yayoi Kusama
Photo by Cathy Carver
The Obliteration Room, 2002 to present
Furniture, white paint, and dot stickers
Dimensions variable
Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012.
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Photograph: QAGOMA Photography
© Yayoi Kusama