Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art 10:00
¥2,200, college and high school students ¥1,400, junior high and elementary school students ¥600
Few artists have left as enduring a mark on the global contemporary art scene as Yayoi Kusama. The Matsumoto native is celebrated for her singular visual language built on repetition, nets and polka dots – motifs rooted in childhood hallucinations and nurtured through her years in New York’s avant-garde scene. Her pioneering ‘Infinity Nets’, mirrored rooms and pumpkin sculptures have become iconic symbols of self-obliteration, cosmic unity and radical introspection. Now in her nineties, Kusama continues to create at a remarkable pace.
‘Repetition & Proliferation’ explores a lesser-known but vital aspect of her oeuvre: printmaking. On view at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art until September 7, the show features approximately 330 prints, including works held by the Matsumoto City Museum of Art – the world’s most extensive Kusama collection – as well as pieces from the artist’s own archive.
Ranging from vivid silkscreens and whimsical lithographs to introspective etchings, these prints reveal Kusama’s fascination with reproduction and motif accumulation. Highlights include the luminous Pumpkin series, the introspective Love Forever silkscreens, and rarely seen monochrome etchings that underscore her formal rigour.
