Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama gets retrospective at TLV Museum

An extensive retrospective of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama will be exhibited throughout the two buildings of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in November 2021, featuring some 200 works of one of the world’s most popular artists.

The exhibit is ranked as one of the biggest and best art exhibitions opening in 2021 around the world, and will follow extensive Kusama exhibits at Gropius Bau in Berlin and another retrospective of the artist’s work at the New York Botanical Gardens.

The Tel Aviv exhibit is a joint collaboration of Studio Kusama in Tokyo and the Gropius Bau in Berlin.

The exhibit will include works created by Kusama over the last 70 years, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and cinema and fashion. The works will be shown in six galleries of the museum, spread out over some 3,000 square meters. The exhibit will also include four Infinity Rooms, Kusama’s mirror installations.

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field, 1965 — Installation, Mixed Media, which will be on display at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art as part of a Yayoi Kusama retrospective in November 2021 (Courtesy: Ota Fine Arts; Victoria Miro; David Zwirner)

“Her entire oeuvre is mesmerizingly powerful, impressive and pleasurable at the same time,” said Suzanne Landau, curator of the exhibition and the museum’s former director. “The presentation of her retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is definitely a unique event of historic magnitude.”

Now 92, Kusama is recognizable by her red wigs, witches’ hats and robes, and a proliferation of polka dots on her clothing and other surfaces. Her art has crossed into commercial work, with cooperative ventures with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, which made her work more familiar to fans of all ages.

A portrait of iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama ahead of the retrospective of her life work at the Tel Aviv Museum of art in November 2020. (Courtesy, Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro & David Zwirne)

She is the most tagged artist on social media.

“The public thirsts for exciting quality experiences, particularly now, in the post-COVID-19 period with all its difficulties,” said Tania Coen-Uzzielli, director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. “The presentation of this monumental exhibition in Israel, in collaboration with other museums around the world, will allow the Israeli public to enjoy a unique international cultural event.”