Dear Diane, Dear Shaded Viewers,
On January 6th, there was a press conference and the preview of Yayoi Kusama's exhibition "Eternity of Eternal Eternity" at The National Museum of Art, Osaka.
Yayoi Kusama at the press conference
"Eternity of Eternal Eternity" exhibition features the most recent works of Yayoi Kusama. Kusama started to paint in her teens inspired by a hallucinatory experience which she had when she was a child. Since then, she has been creating works for more than 70 years. Kusama is now 82 – turning 83 on 22 March, 2012. Since 2004, Kusama has been working on 2 new series, "Love Forever" and "My Eternal Soul". In both series, Kusama depicts a endless stream of linked images, brim with the free-spirited, joyous imagination of a child while revealing visions from her inner world to realize a body of work. At this exhibition, you can see 47 paintings from "My eternal Soul" series, 50 paintings from "Love forever", 3 new portraits of herself especially created for this exhibition and 3 Happy Sculptures.
GREAT GIGANTIC PUMPKIN
YAYOI KUSAMA: Eternity of Eternal Eternity
JANUARY 7 – APRIL 8, 2012 @The National Museum of Art, Osaka
April 14 – May 20, 2012 @The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
July 14 – November 4 @Matsumoto City Museum of Art
November 10 – December 24 @Niigata City Art Museum
From here, I tried to show as much as possible of the exhibition for the people who will not be able to visit the exhibition. People who are going to visit the exhibition, don't scroll down. You should see them in real – and for the first time at the museum. The exhibition will tour around Japan – after Osaka will be in Saitama, Matsumoto and then in Niigata.
Love Forever
Before entering the the rooms with "My Eternal Soul" – there was a poem of Kusama.
After the Battle, I Want to Die at the End of the Universe
I who have been shouting Love Forever to all the people.
Having always been distressed over how to live
I have kept carrying the banner for pursuit of art.
And since the time I was born
I have continued running.
On the world stage,
constantly shedding my yesterday's clothes for new ones
I have kept creating an enormous body of work.
This "journey" of mine, under the midnight lamp and
in the stillness of many sleepless nights, has been a source of encouragement for me.
I want to shout love louder to the world and to leave my mark there.
To overcome conflicts, wars, terrors, and a morass of rich and poor in the world,
that is my earnest wish.
May people live in peace
I never stop praying for that.
I want to keep fighting with the power of art.
With the pursuit of art as a cornerstone
I want to serve the people and contribute to Society.
I will eventually grow old,
walk up a ladder all the way up to heaven in the vast universe.
In a bed of quietly floating white clouds
i depart from myself.
In a bed of deep and blue sky,
I will keep sleeping in comfort.
And I say farewell to the Earth.
(Yayoi Kusama: Eternity of Eternal Eternity. The Asahi Shimbun, pp.71.)
My Eternal Soul
New Portraits
Happy Sculptures
???????????????????WITH ALL MY LOVE FOR THE TULIPS, I PRAY FOR EVER
Entrance to "GLEAMING LIGHTS OF THE SOULS"
????CLEAMING LIGHTS OF THE SOULS
??????FLOWERS THAT BLOOM TOMORROW
This sculpture was shown at the lobby of RIHGA ROYAL HOTEL (OSAKA).
There was a digest version of the documentary program of NHK about Yayoi Kusama.
At the end of the exhibition, you could see Kusama's biography together with some of photos of milestones of her life. Below are the pages from her autobiography " Infinity Nets".
YAYOI KUSAMA autobiography Infinity Nets ,Published by Sakuhinsha 2002
I am not an artist and I am not creating anything. But this whole experience of attending the press conference, listening what Kusama-san is now thinking and has been trying to do, seeing this great exhibition, it made me believe again how important it is to trust yourself and pursuit what you think is right and continue what you want to do and do not forget to thank people around yourself.
I really want to thank Ms. Sakurai from Kusama Studio who accepted my last minutes request for attending the press conference and thank you Diane for letting me write about Kusama-san on ASVOF.
Thank you very much for reading my long post.
Later,
Akiko.
