Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, with the Guest House and Yayoi Kusami’s Pumpkin |
Crowds are lining up out the door to see “Infinity Mirrors” a Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Red Dots on the flat glass walls
Other buildings
A Pumpkin Obsession
Pumpkin on the grounds of The Glass House |
Kusama displayed one of her large pumpkins on the grounds of the Glass House. The metal sculpture was pierced with polka dots and has a red interior. Kusama’s pumpkin theme repeats in one of the six installation rooms of the the Hirshhorn Exhibition. It’s called “All the eternal love I have is for the pumpkins.” (One of these glass pumpkins broke last Saturday, forcing a temporary closing of the exhibit.)
The photo by Domus was taken in November, 2016 |
Pumpkins, like the polka dots, are a lifelong obsession for the artist. According to Kusama, “In Japanese, a ‘pumpkin head’ is an ignorant man or a pudgy woman, but for me, I am charmed by its shape, form, and lack of pretension.” There’s a humor in Kusama work, too.
The Glass House’s Kusama installation featured mirrors in a different form — spherical balls in a pool of water called Narcissus Garden, surrounding the Pond Pavilion designed by Johnson. These spheres, 1300 of them, each 30 cm wide, moved and floated with the ponds currents, reflecting sky, the water and land.
Like Monet’s Water Lilies, Kusama’s water art unifies the elements of water, earth and air, except that it’s not done in a series of paintings. Its a form of kinetic sculpture. In it’s effervescence, Narcissus Garden reminds me that some things can never appear the same again.
Philip Johnson’s Pond Pavilion and Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden, September 24, 2016, view from above |
Her life story and the appreciation of her art
Kusama, born in 1929, is now 87. She moved from Japan to New York in 1957 and played an important role in the avant-garde movement of the ’60s. Working with Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman and Allan Kaprow, she was a perceptual artist who participate in “happenings.” In 1973, Kusama moved back to Japan, exhausted and suffering from hallucinations, living in a mental institution. There was a rebirth of interest in her art in the late ’90s. Her work perfectly embodies Pop Art and Conceptual Art, bridging the two movements, as well as Environmental Art and Performance Art.
The public appreciation for installations and Conceptual Art has finally risen, giving her the broad audience she has today. The Hirshhorn Show is a retrospective celebrating 50 years of her life as an artist. It will travel to four other museums around the US and Canada. Sometimes it takes a life time of work and struggle to finally achieve what you’re here for and today is her time. (The Narcissus Garden is a variation she had introduced years ago at the Venice Biennale in 1966. The “Infinity Mirrors” concept actually goes back in Art History, used in the Hall of Mirrors and integrated into the design of the Palace at Versailles.)
What the critics say
Yayoi Kusama |
According to art critic Philip Kennicott, Kusama says, “My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.” Is it a combination of the obsessiveness in OCD and the hallucinations of schizophrenia? If it is mental illness that creates this great art, then we can recognize mental illness as a special gift and not stigmatize these people who suffer from it. (Read Philip Kennecott’s Review. He sees her as criticizing the art world’s narcissism. I believe that criticism is justified.)
(The best article on the Glass House exhibition is from DeZeen.)
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