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Kusama was born in 1929 in Nagano
Prefecture in Matsumoto City,

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which is a rural,
provincial castle town.

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She was the youngest
of four children,

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born to Kaman and Shigeru Kusama.

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Kusama describes drawing as a child,

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and her mother sneaking
up behind her and tearing

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the picture out of
her daughter's hands.

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And that sense of hysteria
and panic, I think,

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informs Kusama's own
process of making art,

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where she is working
so fast and so furiously,

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to finish a work before
it is torn from her.

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There was a deal that her mother
made with her, that if she went

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to etiquette school,
she could also go to art school.

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And Kusama made the deal.

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And apparently, she never went
to the etiquette lessons,

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but did go to art school.

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And her mother was furious.

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One senses a family that was racked
with interpersonal problems.

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Her father and mother did not
have such a great relationship.

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Her mother would send her daughter,
Kusama, to spy on him.

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Witnessing her father
being with different women must

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have been really traumatic
for a young, sensitive person.

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She has talked to me
about being in this field

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of flowers, on her family's farm,
where she had wandered in.

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Some kind of trauma
had happened in the field.

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So much of Kusama's art seeks
to recreate that experience,

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in one form or another.

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It is literally an experience
of being lost

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into her physical environment,

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of losing her selfhood,
in this space that is moving

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rapidly, and expanding rapidly.

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She came across
Georgia O'Keeffe's work.

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O'Keeffe engaged with the natural
world in a way that is sort

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of fantastic and dreamlike

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and deeply realist, as well.

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I think there was something
about the work, and that here

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was a great American female artist.

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Something clicked in Kusama's
head and she thought,

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"This is a person that I aspire
to be, this is somebody

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who can mentor me."

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And so she wrote
to Georgia O'Keeffe.

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"Dear Miss O'Keeffe,

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Will you please forgive me
to interrupt you while you are

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very busy, and let me
introduce myself to you?

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I am a Japanese female painter.

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There are very few opportunities
to see your work in Japan.

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I have only seen one
of your original paintings,

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Black Iris.

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It gave me a strong impression.

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I felt that I had, in me,
something which seemed very related

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to what lay at the bottom
of Black Iris.

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Some days ago, I thought
of finding your address.

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I'm going to send several
watercolour paintings to you.

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I'm only on the first step
of a long difficult life

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of being a painter.

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Will you kindly show me the way
to approach this life?

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Yours faithfully,
Miss Yayoi Kusama."

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Kusama was probably thrilled
when O'Keeffe wrote back to her.

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"Dear Yayoi Kusama:

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Your two letters came to me,
and your watercolours also came.

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They are interesting.

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But I live in the country,
and the art world is in the city.

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I am not young, you know.

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I have had all of the things
you wish to move toward.

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In this country, an artist
has a hard time making a living.

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You will just have to find
your way as best you can.

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But I wish the very best for you.

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Sincerely, Georgia O'Keeffe."

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O'Keeffe gave her advice to come
to the United States,

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to bring her work with her,
to be unafraid, to show

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it to anybody who she thought
might be interested.

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The opposition of her family,
and the challenges to become

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an accomplished artist,
must have driven this notion that,

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at some point,
she would have to escape.

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Kusama is among the very first
artists in post-war Japan

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to make her way to New York,
where she takes up residence

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in 1958.

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She knew, in herself,
that she had a will, and a vision

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that was enormous.

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She had to smuggle
money into the country.

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She came to America with dollar
bills sewn in her kimono.

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Kusama was coming into
the New York art world

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and she was a single woman.

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Previous to that, women
could be included in group shows,

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not one-person shows.

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Even some of the women dealers
wouldn't show women.

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I used to see
her cry coming back from...

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from a visit to the galleries.

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She was very aggressive.

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She wanted so much
to be in the galleries,

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but couldn't even get through
the door.

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She was twice the other -
not only was she a woman

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in a male-dominated art world,
but she was also Japanese.

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She was not taken seriously
by the establishment.

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She's wearing current fashions.

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And then she starts wearing kimonos
for special occasions.

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There's a lot of mystery and allure
to being an Asian female.

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She's trying to survive
in this world.

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There is a painting
called Pacific Ocean,

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from 1958.

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And Kusama said that
that is really the origin

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of infinity net painting.

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One of the reasons why Pacific Ocean
was so important for her is because,

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when she grew up in the Mountain
province, Matsumoto city,

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the people who were living there,
you know, their dream of life

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was really to go
beyond the mountains,

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to see the Pacific Ocean.

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I remember a particular gallery
opening where Kusama

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and I were intensely engaged
in the potential development

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of her future, starting with funds
and that she wanted to know,

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"Carolee, is there an important man
here in this opening?

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I have to meet him."

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And she was blatant,
and aggressive, and overt.

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And she was going to find a patron.

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I would see Kusama at the next
opening with a handsome,

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conventional young man
following behind her

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who had rented her the apartment
or the equipment or the materials.

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She did everything there was to do
to get ahead.

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She was trying to get Sidney Janis.
That was the number one gallery

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at that time.

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One day, one of the boys
came and said,

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"Ed, I think your
friend just sent some paintings."

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She had sent her paintings over.

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Well, they refused.

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So they sent it back.

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About four hours later,
here comes a lady with one

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of those real minks.

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And they said they'd like
to see her paintings.

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She had told them that
she's in the gallery.

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That was Yayoi.

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A lot of artists couldn't get
into the galleries,

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so we started this co-op
gallery, the Brata.

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I arranged for her to
have a show there.

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That was the day of
abstract expressionism.

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When she showed, her work
looked so different.

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Because there was that air.

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The paintings were quite tapestry
like, but they had a wonderful

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tactile quality.

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The impasto, it continued
over the whole surface.

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Donald Judd reviewed that show.

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His first line in the
review is,

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"Yayoi Kusama is an original
painter."

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He went on to talk
about the paintings.

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He really praised them.

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Don was a sculptor and a critic.

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A very serious reviewer.

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I had a gallery in Washington.

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Kusama appeared one day,

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completely unannounced,
with a young man.

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They carried in one
painting after another.

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I'd never seen anything like it.

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They had some kind of magic.
You couldn't stop looking at them,

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and you didn't know
where they were going.

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They were hypnotic.

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I was organising an exhibition
of contemporary Japanese art.

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Yayoi was not well-known.

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She was nobody.

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And these other artists were all
men, and were very well-known.

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There was an altercation
at one point...

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She tried to destroy the whole show.

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It was bloody hell.

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I went into most of the galleries,
and I saw Yayoi's paintings.

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The one that stood out
was the yellow one.

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I saw New York in terms of yellow
and black, and the combination

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of taxi cabs and the asphalt.

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I just casually asked
how much it was.

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They said it was $75.

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And, you know,
that seemed like a lot.

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And the next week, you know,
it was preying on my mind.

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Because I really liked
it and everything.

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And after all, I said,
"OK, I'll do it."

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And I paid $25 a week, or something.

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Joseph Cornell was a great
and important artist.

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Cornell was so inspiring
and strange,

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and deeply, deeply suppressed.

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He was a surrealist,
and he lived with his mother

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on Utopia Heights.

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Cornell, during the years
after his father died,

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from a very young age,
was supporting his mother

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and disabled brother.

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They would talk on the phone.

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And she would say, "Joseph,
I have to go now."

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And he said, "No, Yayoi,
just put the phone down.

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I'll wait for you to come back."

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So, Kusama would go out,
completely forget about Cornell,

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come back a couple of hours later,
find the phone on her bed,

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pick it up, and Joseph
would say "Hi, Yayoi."

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When you do a painting of that size,
in some sense, it stops

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becoming a painting

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and it becomes a spatial universe.

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Her health was always something
that she worried about,

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a great deal.

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And I suggested to her that
she see a psychiatrist.

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There's some thought
that she might have had some

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traumatic experiences, as a child.

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She describes coming across her
father in a compromising situation.

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It's the sort of Freudian notion
that you respond to those kind

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of traumas with, kind
of repetitive obsessional focus,

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on the object of your fear.

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For Kusama, that fear,
and she talks about it

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very explicitly, was a fear of sex.

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Her diagnosis is obsessive
compulsive neurosis.

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Once something enters into her mind,
she cannot get rid of it.

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She calls them 'the penis
chairs' herself.

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She has a good eye for
what catches attention.

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And if she had called them the

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banana chairs, they probably
wouldn't have been as interesting

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to so many people.

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Maybe... Maybe so many people
wouldn't have wanted to sit on them!

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But I can tell you,
we have to fight to keep people

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off this chair!

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We were walking to this group show,
there was Rosenquist.

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There's Donald Judd.

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And Andy Warhol.

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And yet, your eyes always
return to Kusama's couch.

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Nobody bought them.

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But then everybody
was talking about it.

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Claes Oldenburg had a stiff piece,
which was made out of papier-mache.

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And it was a suit.

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Oldenburg's loft is a factory,
where he works out the problems

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of handling new materials,
in new ways, with the help

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of his wife, Pat,
and other assistants.

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I don't think, until
he saw Kusama's artwork,

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he thought of actually creating
the sculpture out of sewing.

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It's very un-masculine.

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Suddenly, he was
an international star.

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This really discouraged
Kusama so much, because,

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you know, she also wanted to make
her way up with her soft sculpture.

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That really made her depressed.

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The installation of the 1000 boats
show, which is her first real

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installation work,
that was very innovative.

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And what she does is
she's covered a rowboat

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and its oars with these stuffed
soft sculpture protrusions.

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Then she's also photographed
the boat, and made a poster,

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and covered all of the walls
of the gallery with that photograph.

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So the boat is sitting in the middle
of the photographs of itself.

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The idea of covering
all of the walls and creating

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an installation like that
was very innovative.

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She got very, very shocked.

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She couldn't go out from her studio.

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And she had to cover
all her studio windows.

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She didn't want no-one
to get her ideas.

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She was living secretly,
and creating a lot of sculptures.

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00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:16,740
Kusama was creating work
of equal importance,

245
00:30:16,740 --> 00:30:18,700
yet she wasn't getting
the same backing.

246
00:30:19,700 --> 00:30:22,420
Sexism plays a very
major role in this.

247
00:30:22,420 --> 00:30:24,220
And maybe racism as well.

248
00:30:40,180 --> 00:30:44,500
She was taking away
your ability to focus,

249
00:30:44,500 --> 00:30:46,860
breaking all boundaries of space.

250
00:30:48,700 --> 00:30:53,500
The exhibitions that I had,
in particular the peepshow,

251
00:30:53,500 --> 00:30:56,140
that did the job.

252
00:30:56,140 --> 00:30:58,500
It was an octagonal room,
and there were openings

253
00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:00,580
where you could stick your head in.

254
00:31:01,900 --> 00:31:06,100
The ceiling of it set
up a series of lights.

255
00:31:07,300 --> 00:31:08,780
The rhythm of that machine was...

256
00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:16,020
When men started devoting
themselves to shooting rockets

257
00:31:16,020 --> 00:31:17,140
with themselves in them,

258
00:31:17,140 --> 00:31:18,820
up into the stratosphere,

259
00:31:18,820 --> 00:31:21,900
people became more
conscious of infinity.

260
00:31:23,100 --> 00:31:24,140
And she caught that.

261
00:31:35,300 --> 00:31:37,500
There were many artists,
from the Renaissance on,

262
00:31:37,500 --> 00:31:40,380
who were involved in
perspective and infinity.

263
00:31:40,380 --> 00:31:43,260
But it was all a fake,
because you knew, you the viewer,

264
00:31:43,260 --> 00:31:46,100
you're always aware
that you were the master.

265
00:31:46,100 --> 00:31:50,860
That it was a painting,
it was encompassed by a frame,

266
00:31:50,860 --> 00:31:53,140
and the artist was
playing with space.

267
00:31:53,140 --> 00:31:54,660
But it wasn't enveloping you.

268
00:31:58,100 --> 00:32:00,900
This was the great breaking point
in art.

269
00:32:02,740 --> 00:32:07,460
No longer are you, the viewer,
the master. She's the master.

270
00:32:17,380 --> 00:32:21,860
Lucas Samaras was active
in the avant-garde radical art scene

271
00:32:21,860 --> 00:32:23,900
of New York in the 1960s.

272
00:32:25,020 --> 00:32:29,740
In 1966, about seven months
after Yayoi Kusama's infinity mirror

273
00:32:29,740 --> 00:32:34,700
room, Lucas Samaras shows a quite
similar construction,

274
00:32:34,700 --> 00:32:37,340
a room-like mirrored environment

275
00:32:37,340 --> 00:32:40,740
at the far more
established Pace Gallery.

276
00:32:41,940 --> 00:32:45,140
That room was unlike anything
Samaras had ever made before.

277
00:32:48,020 --> 00:32:51,420
I think it's fair to say,
unequivocally, that Kusama

278
00:32:51,420 --> 00:32:54,500
was the first artist,
in New York, or anywhere,

279
00:32:54,500 --> 00:32:56,860
to create a mirrored environment.

280
00:32:59,620 --> 00:33:02,820
There is no question
that she was not really taken

281
00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:05,180
up by the establishment in the
'60s, when she was doing all

282
00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:07,500
that incredible innovative work.

283
00:33:48,580 --> 00:33:52,660
Sometimes she would simply peer
at the door, and I would realise

284
00:33:52,660 --> 00:33:54,300
that she wasn't well.

285
00:33:54,300 --> 00:33:56,820
And I'd take her upstairs
and put her to bed

286
00:33:56,820 --> 00:33:58,300
and look after her

287
00:33:58,300 --> 00:33:59,980
for whatever it took,

288
00:33:59,980 --> 00:34:02,100
a week or ten days.

289
00:34:02,100 --> 00:34:04,100
She needed to have somebody
take care of her.

290
00:34:58,580 --> 00:35:01,180
By the mid-60s, Kusama
is showing as much,

291
00:35:01,180 --> 00:35:02,580
if not more, in Europe.

292
00:35:56,940 --> 00:36:00,940
Selling your art for a few dollars
to anybody who comes by

293
00:36:00,940 --> 00:36:04,060
is a very subversive idea.

294
00:36:04,060 --> 00:36:08,300
Art is supposed to be expensive,
precious, out of reach.

295
00:36:24,700 --> 00:36:29,060
She begins in this kimono,
and when she's asked to leave,

296
00:36:29,060 --> 00:36:30,540
she gets rid of the kimono.

297
00:36:32,700 --> 00:36:35,540
And she is dancing around
and lying amid the balls,

298
00:36:35,540 --> 00:36:38,780
and there are all
of her in leotards,

299
00:36:38,780 --> 00:36:40,140
with her artwork.

300
00:36:44,380 --> 00:36:46,660
She was always aware
of the publicity element.

301
00:36:46,660 --> 00:36:47,980
And it gets a lot of attention.

302
00:37:21,860 --> 00:37:26,100
In New York City, on 53rd St,
stands the Museum of Modern Art.

303
00:37:51,060 --> 00:37:55,940
Kusama presented these happenings
in sculpture garden of MoMA.

304
00:38:08,460 --> 00:38:13,260
Their performance lasted until MoMA
guard started to expel them.

305
00:38:13,260 --> 00:38:15,420
But it was really successful.

306
00:38:17,700 --> 00:38:21,820
My friend, Billy, told me
that I could stay at this loft

307
00:38:21,820 --> 00:38:23,860
if I allowed her to paint me.

308
00:38:23,860 --> 00:38:27,260
And I was quite excited,
cos I'm thinking portrait.

309
00:38:27,260 --> 00:38:31,820
It never occurred to me
that this literally meant paint you.

310
00:38:31,820 --> 00:38:34,900
It's hard to define
the expression in her eyes.

311
00:38:34,900 --> 00:38:38,980
She was not looking at you as though
you were a human being.

312
00:38:38,980 --> 00:38:44,940
This was a thing that she was going
to manipulate to colour,

313
00:38:44,940 --> 00:38:48,220
to position, to where
she thought it should be.

314
00:38:49,700 --> 00:38:53,620
I was a runaway. I felt much more
comfortable with gay boys.

315
00:38:53,620 --> 00:38:54,900
It was safer.

316
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:38,220
It's quite extraordinary
to look back and realise

317
00:39:38,220 --> 00:39:42,820
that Kusama was performing gay
marriages about 40 years ago.

318
00:39:44,220 --> 00:39:51,580
Now I'm making a movie,
Kusama's Self-Obliteration.

319
00:39:51,580 --> 00:39:56,900
Kusama wandered in to the Gate
Theater and she came over and said,

320
00:39:56,900 --> 00:39:59,780
"You want to shoot my happening
when it's going on?"

321
00:39:59,780 --> 00:40:01,100
And I agreed.

322
00:41:29,900 --> 00:41:34,180
She had won a prize
in Belgium for this film.

323
00:41:35,780 --> 00:41:39,220
She invited me to come
celebrate the opening.

324
00:41:39,220 --> 00:41:43,980
I realised when I got to the box
office that we were not

325
00:41:43,980 --> 00:41:46,340
properly dressed.

326
00:41:46,340 --> 00:41:52,060
Everybody was in black leather
jackets, and all kinds of hippy

327
00:41:52,060 --> 00:41:54,700
type of clothing.

328
00:41:54,700 --> 00:41:58,140
I felt a little bit
embarrassed, but we went in.

329
00:41:58,140 --> 00:42:04,340
We had finished seeing the film,
and were ready to leave.

330
00:42:04,340 --> 00:42:07,540
Kusama said, "You can't leave now.

331
00:42:07,540 --> 00:42:10,140
People are going to undress."

332
00:42:10,140 --> 00:42:14,260
So I told my husband and he said,
"Well, let's go home."

333
00:42:14,260 --> 00:42:16,620
And then I turned to my
mother and she said,

334
00:42:16,620 --> 00:42:18,300
"Let's stay."

335
00:42:18,300 --> 00:42:19,580
And so we stayed.

336
00:42:23,740 --> 00:42:35,300

love is what you need

337
00:42:35,300 --> 00:42:41,740

it, you can't change its name

338
00:42:41,740 --> 00:42:47,900

it, give it all the same

339
00:42:47,900 --> 00:42:59,740

love is what you need

340
00:42:59,740 --> 00:43:08,620


341
00:43:08,620 --> 00:43:10,980


342
00:43:15,540 --> 00:43:19,380
The threat of the draft was a big
deal. It was a big deal,

343
00:43:19,380 --> 00:43:22,020
very different than anything
we're experiencing today.

344
00:43:47,100 --> 00:43:51,060
She said, "Nudity is
such a beautiful thing.

345
00:43:51,060 --> 00:43:54,180
Why do we have to send
this beautiful body

346
00:43:54,180 --> 00:43:55,900
to the war as soldiers?"

347
00:43:56,980 --> 00:44:01,100
She's against the war
because of her wartime experience.

348
00:44:38,580 --> 00:44:43,020
She wasn't absorbed
into this totalitarian government.

349
00:44:43,020 --> 00:44:46,020
A lot of people are
very much brainwashed.

350
00:46:58,220 --> 00:47:00,460
When she did a lot
of naked happenings,

351
00:47:00,460 --> 00:47:01,740
and it being written

352
00:47:01,740 --> 00:47:05,460
up in Japanese magazines,
the family was so ashamed

353
00:47:05,460 --> 00:47:10,580
that they went to every book store
on the day when the magazine

354
00:47:10,580 --> 00:47:15,780
was sold, and they bought everything
and they hide it in their house.

355
00:47:28,740 --> 00:47:31,100
Nixon was re-elected president.

356
00:47:31,100 --> 00:47:33,620
The country became
far more conservative,

357
00:47:33,620 --> 00:47:36,780
and I think it just became
more difficult for artists

358
00:47:36,780 --> 00:47:40,580
who were really pushing
the boundaries, as Kusama was,

359
00:47:40,580 --> 00:47:42,980
to find a place to work
and to function, both

360
00:47:42,980 --> 00:47:45,140
artistically and economically.

361
00:47:46,700 --> 00:47:50,260
The system is set up to support
white male artists who are carrying

362
00:47:50,260 --> 00:47:53,380
on the tradition of modernism,
but there's also elements

363
00:47:53,380 --> 00:47:55,820
of the marketplace,
who the collectors are,

364
00:47:55,820 --> 00:47:58,460
who the curators and museum
directors are, and who they feel

365
00:47:58,460 --> 00:48:00,500
most comfortable about promoting.

366
00:48:00,500 --> 00:48:03,420
Kusama, who was a marginal
figure in every way -

367
00:48:03,420 --> 00:48:08,220
she was a woman, she was Japanese,
she was completely outside of

368
00:48:08,220 --> 00:48:10,220
this Western cultural sphere -

369
00:48:10,220 --> 00:48:14,900
she did not get the same kind of
support that the male artists did.

370
00:48:57,980 --> 00:49:01,740
The respect she had earned
in the early 1960s

371
00:49:01,740 --> 00:49:08,060
had been relatively dispersed by her
increasingly radical and,

372
00:49:08,060 --> 00:49:12,540
I suppose, populist,
attention-seeking activities,

373
00:49:12,540 --> 00:49:15,660
so she was, you know,
increasingly disorientated,

374
00:49:15,660 --> 00:49:18,460
disillusioned and depressed.

375
00:49:18,460 --> 00:49:19,740
She went home.

376
00:49:26,820 --> 00:49:32,460
In 1973, I turned on
the television, and Channel 28

377
00:49:32,460 --> 00:49:35,740
was having a fundraiser
which was an art auction.

378
00:49:35,740 --> 00:49:42,820
I saw this piece by Yayoi Kusama,
so I bid $75, and I waited

379
00:49:42,820 --> 00:49:46,140
and then I heard
the next bid was $100.

380
00:49:46,140 --> 00:49:50,380
About 20 minutes later,
I got a phone call and they asked me

381
00:49:50,380 --> 00:49:53,580
if I was very serious
about purchasing this piece,

382
00:49:53,580 --> 00:49:57,580
so I said, "Yes", and it seems
like the person who did purchase

383
00:49:57,580 --> 00:50:01,300
the piece was not.
He was just making a joke.

384
00:50:01,300 --> 00:50:05,220
And at that time, I would be asking
different curators if they ever

385
00:50:05,220 --> 00:50:08,900
heard of Yayoi, and most of them
have not heard of her

386
00:50:08,900 --> 00:50:10,540
or did not know

387
00:50:10,540 --> 00:50:12,540
what has happened to her.

388
00:50:12,540 --> 00:50:16,820
To go back to Tokyo and to start
from scratch again was quite

389
00:50:16,820 --> 00:50:19,300
extraordinary because she wasn't
known there and she hadn't

390
00:50:19,300 --> 00:50:22,420
been recognised and she was
a middle-aged lady.

391
00:50:43,660 --> 00:50:48,740
This was the time when she was
suffering most from rejection

392
00:50:48,740 --> 00:50:51,140
of the Japanese art world.

393
00:50:51,140 --> 00:50:53,780
The family wasn't
there to support her.

394
00:50:53,780 --> 00:50:56,820
That became a very,
very bitter experience.

395
00:50:58,620 --> 00:51:01,380
At a time, she's lost her father,

396
00:51:01,380 --> 00:51:04,740
I think there were obstacles of some
mental health issues.

397
00:52:01,620 --> 00:52:06,420
And so, Kusama finds this hospital
where the doctor's interested in art

398
00:52:06,420 --> 00:52:09,820
therapy and she checks herself in.

399
00:52:09,820 --> 00:52:11,780
And from the security
of that environment,

400
00:52:11,780 --> 00:52:14,500
she's able to work again.

401
00:52:14,500 --> 00:52:18,700
There was a need to fill the hours
of every day with activity,

402
00:52:18,700 --> 00:52:23,260
and the activity that lent itself
most easily to her circumstances

403
00:52:23,260 --> 00:52:24,500
was collage.

404
00:52:30,740 --> 00:52:33,460
From seeds, to insects,

405
00:52:33,460 --> 00:52:36,820
to small,
scary, supernatural creatures.

406
00:52:37,980 --> 00:52:39,300
They're very dark.

407
00:52:40,780 --> 00:52:44,740
And there comes a time
when she's lost her father.

408
00:52:46,500 --> 00:52:50,500
They're full of this imagery
of natural life cycles.

409
00:53:12,580 --> 00:53:16,820
She really had to start
from scratch, looking into galleries

410
00:53:16,820 --> 00:53:18,820
to exhibit her pieces.

411
00:53:18,820 --> 00:53:23,300
What was very sad is she had to rent
this place in Matsumoto City

412
00:53:23,300 --> 00:53:27,340
where she exhibited
her watercolours in 1952.

413
00:54:41,100 --> 00:54:44,860
Over the course of
the late '70s and '80s, Kusama

414
00:54:44,860 --> 00:54:49,180
had been obliterated
from the histories.

415
00:54:49,180 --> 00:54:52,700
What the Village Voice
called her "lust for publicity"

416
00:54:52,700 --> 00:54:56,060
simply fell out
of critical favour.

417
00:54:56,060 --> 00:55:01,860
No museums and no galleries
in New York had shown Kusama's

418
00:55:01,860 --> 00:55:04,300
work in over 20 years.

419
00:55:06,660 --> 00:55:11,340
She showed at the Fuji TV Gallery
and it was my encounter

420
00:55:11,340 --> 00:55:15,380
with her work, sculptural work
of the early to mid-1980s,

421
00:55:15,380 --> 00:55:19,580
that really inspired in me
the will and the conviction

422
00:55:19,580 --> 00:55:23,940
that an exhibition of Yayoi Kusama
had to happen in New York.

423
00:55:26,980 --> 00:55:32,180
We went to visit Kusama in Japan
and collected papers,

424
00:55:32,180 --> 00:55:35,260
documents, photographs
and publicity, which featured

425
00:55:35,260 --> 00:55:36,740
a lot of nudity.

426
00:55:38,020 --> 00:55:42,860
When I was bringing these boxes
back, I was stopped at the customs

427
00:55:42,860 --> 00:55:45,820
because they thought
that I was carrying pornography,

428
00:55:45,820 --> 00:55:48,780
and I had to argue with
the customs guys that,

429
00:55:48,780 --> 00:55:50,500
actually, this was art.

430
00:55:51,940 --> 00:55:59,660
In 1989, I curated the exhibition
Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective

431
00:55:59,660 --> 00:56:03,740
at the Center For International
Contemporary Arts or CICA.

432
00:56:17,620 --> 00:56:19,980
And it was a sensational exhibition.

433
00:56:19,980 --> 00:56:23,100
Kusama had not been
to the United States

434
00:56:23,100 --> 00:56:26,020
since she had left in 1973.

435
00:56:27,020 --> 00:56:28,940
We attempted a full retrospective,

436
00:56:28,940 --> 00:56:31,820
going back to her early watercolours

437
00:56:31,820 --> 00:56:32,980
from the '50s.

438
00:58:18,940 --> 00:58:23,300
I went to the Venice Biennale.

439
00:58:23,300 --> 00:58:26,740
At first I thought,
"Well, gee, look at that!

440
00:58:26,740 --> 00:58:29,340
"That's Yayoi," and there she was.

441
00:58:32,420 --> 00:58:34,780
I was so glad to see her.

442
00:58:38,740 --> 00:58:42,940
For her to have the exhibition
for the 1993 Venice Biennial

443
00:58:42,940 --> 00:58:49,340
Pavilion was a huge,
huge transformation of how Kusama

444
00:58:49,340 --> 00:58:52,940
was received and appreciated
and recognised within

445
00:58:52,940 --> 00:58:55,180
the Japanese art world.

446
00:58:55,180 --> 00:59:00,020
So she went from crashing the party
and inserting her own work

447
00:59:00,020 --> 00:59:04,580
without invitation or permission
to being the first Japanese woman

448
00:59:04,580 --> 00:59:08,180
to represent Japan
at the '93 Biennale.

449
00:59:19,100 --> 00:59:21,820
Oh, I'm so glad to see you!

450
00:59:21,820 --> 00:59:25,460
The exhibition that we organised
by the Los Angeles County Museum

451
00:59:25,460 --> 00:59:30,300
Of Art was called Love Forever:
Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968.

452
00:59:40,460 --> 00:59:43,500
Sometimes you can feel something,
almost like a tidal wave

453
00:59:43,500 --> 00:59:45,820
under your feet,
when you're working on something,

454
00:59:45,820 --> 00:59:49,020
and you know that this artist
is going to be big.

455
00:59:53,460 --> 00:59:57,100
She's created this amazing
situation for herself.

456
00:59:58,660 --> 01:00:02,380
The studio is two blocks
from the hospital,

457
01:00:02,380 --> 01:00:05,860
so she just walks to the studio
every day to do her work

458
01:00:05,860 --> 01:00:08,500
and then she returns
to the hospital at night.

459
01:00:11,140 --> 01:00:13,860
Clearly the strains
and stresses of life,

460
01:00:13,860 --> 01:00:16,180
the memories,
have forced her to withdraw,

461
01:00:16,180 --> 01:00:17,660
but what she's always

462
01:00:17,660 --> 01:00:21,220
done, she has always managed
that process incredibly well,

463
01:00:21,220 --> 01:00:24,780
and I think there's a sort
of a managing madness about Kusama

464
01:00:24,780 --> 01:00:26,740
which is so utterly sane.

465
01:00:26,740 --> 01:00:30,260
She's used her trauma
to enormously productive ends.

466
01:02:31,580 --> 01:02:34,380
She's celebrated all over the world,

467
01:02:34,380 --> 01:02:38,060
so she has collectors all over the
world and she has museum exhibitions

468
01:02:38,060 --> 01:02:39,420
all over the world.

469
01:02:41,340 --> 01:02:44,140
Her work transcends boundaries.
It really does appeal

470
01:02:44,140 --> 01:02:46,500
to a very broad group of people.

471
01:02:49,820 --> 01:02:53,900
Social media is, for sure,
a very specific phenomenon as part

472
01:02:53,900 --> 01:02:55,700
of her success.

473
01:02:55,700 --> 01:02:59,700
She's had 5 million museum visitors
since 2013 and there's not one

474
01:02:59,700 --> 01:03:02,580
artist in the world who has that
same kind of audience.

475
01:03:02,580 --> 01:03:05,700
She's officially the most
successful living artist.

476
01:07:30,460 --> 01:07:34,100

sitting on my windowsill

477
01:07:34,100 --> 01:07:37,500

it's dying

478
01:07:37,500 --> 01:07:39,700


479
01:07:39,700 --> 01:07:41,620


480
01:07:41,620 --> 01:07:43,740


481
01:07:43,740 --> 01:07:46,260


482
01:07:46,260 --> 01:07:50,020


483
01:07:50,020 --> 01:07:57,780


484
01:07:59,780 --> 01:08:03,540

still

485
01:08:03,540 --> 01:08:06,860

your idling

486
01:08:06,860 --> 01:08:11,300


487
01:08:11,300 --> 01:08:13,180


488
01:08:13,180 --> 01:08:15,540


489
01:08:15,540 --> 01:08:18,860


490
01:08:18,860 --> 01:08:30,620


491
01:08:46,620 --> 01:08:48,580


492
01:08:48,580 --> 01:08:50,740


493
01:08:50,740 --> 01:08:55,620

mean it

494
01:08:55,620 --> 01:08:58,060


495
01:08:58,060 --> 01:09:01,660


496
01:09:01,660 --> 01:09:09,660


497
01:09:09,660 --> 01:09:13,700