Akira Tatehata Although Yavoi Kusama is one of the most notable talents in contemporary Japanese art, she has continued to be the object of much prejudice and misunderstanding. An artist of strong individual character, she may actually have considered it an honor to be seen as heretical.  If we look back on her work today, however, we are forced to recog- nize that her lonely achievement was ahead of its time and helped form the most accepted tendencies of postwar art. This exhibition (the first to honor a single artist in the Japan pavilion) is an attempt to accurately reassess the quality of her achievement without undue emphasis on her legendary eccentricity. The exhibition includes work from her early sixties period in New York up through the present. It is not intended as a retrospective, but examples from her forma- tive period are included in order to provide an understand- ing of the overall quality of her work, based on sexual and psychological obsessions and consistently motivated by the desire for obliteration of the self. Kusama's œuvre ranges from paintings and three- dimensional objects to environments and happenings, all characterized by "the monotony of repetition."  Her obses- sive approach is characterized by the use of polka-dots.  It is as if Kusama were trying to cover the entire with polka- dots in the tremendous volume of her art. Kusama began making her series of Infinity Nets in 1958, the year when she moved to New York. Her pictures suddenly became much larger than those she had made in Japan (one work in this exhibition is more than four meters long; she has made paintings more than ten meters in length), probably in order to compete with the large picto- rial surfaces of the New York School.  In most of these works she placed a semi-transparent, veil-like laver of white paint over an initial layer of black, and on this painted a net-like pattern.  The net pattern has a delicate, fluffy feel in contrast to the flat background. This "all-over" surface is monotonous but the irregularity of connections between the undulating lines give it great beauty. The canvas was fold- ed while the painting was being executed, giving a sense of vertical striping. The repetitive method used in these net paintings can be seen as a turning point on the path from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism.  Kusama later recalled that she was attempting to use a "method opposite to the emo- tional space of Abstract Expressionism (which prevailed in New York)."(1) The intensity of her "monotony of repeti¬ tion" came from her personal temperament, but at the same time it was a thoroughly "anti-emotional" method. During her first one-person show in New York at the Brata Gallery, Donald Judd recognized the significance of the "complicated but simple" space of her net paintings from the formalist point of view. In Art News, he wrote, The space is shallow, close to the surface and achieved by innumerable arcs superimposed on a black ground overlain with a wash of white.  The effect is both complex and simple. Essentially it is produced by the interaction of the two close, some- what parallel, vertical planes, at points merging at the surface plane and at others diverging slightly but powerfully, ca A graceful but tense conflict was noticed in the net paintings between the ground and the net pattern (the in- numerable small arcs). The obsessive urge behind the multi¬ plication of similar forms, however, cannot be entirely ex- plained in terms of formal and spatial concerns.  The ground and the net pattern are two overlapping surfaces but at the same time they have an interactive negative and posi- tive relationship. This pattern was a negative version of the polka-dots. I had a desire to prophecy and measure the infinity of the boundless universe from my own position with each dot, with an accumulation of particles which are negatives of the holes in the net.... In 1959 I published a manifesto stating that everything, my- self, others, and the universe, would be obliterated by the white strands of nothingness connecting the astronomical accumulations of dots.  These white cords surround the black spots of a silent death behind nothingness, and I painted them from morn- ing to night, c) Immediately after moving to New York, this great obsession moved her to make art in a way that resembled ascetic practices in her lonely studio. The word obliterate, however, suggests a desire for personal salvation as well as a desire for emptiness. Besides the obliteration of the uni- verse in endless nets and dots, it also meant release from an enclosed, stifling situation. The imagery of nets and dots did not begin in 1959. As early as elementary school, Kusama made two pencil drawings which can be seen as forerunners of this trend. One is a picture of her mother as a young woman with her face down and her eyes closed.  Small dots like falling snow are placed all over the face, the clothes, and the background. The other is a vase of flowers in the corner of a room but here too everything is covered with dots.  A radiating form made of overlapping triangles, which might be seen as the precursor of the net pattern, is roughly drawn on the walls and the vase.  Both drawings project a feeling of descent into lonely fantasy which cannot be explained in terms of the freedom of a child's drawing. Kusama reports, in fact, that she was afflicted by visual and auditory hallucinations.  Recalling her fear of these hallucinations, she writes, One day, looking at a red-flower-patterned table cloth on the table, I turned my eyes to the ceiling and saw the same red flower pattern everywhere, even on the window glass and posts.  The room, my body, the entire universe was filled with it, my self was eliminated, and I had returned and been reduced to the infinity of eternal time and the absolute of space. This was not an illusion but reality.  I was astound¬ ed.  If I did not get away from there, I would be wrapped up in the spell of the red flowers and lose my life. I ran for the stairs without thinking of any- thing else.  Looking down. I saw the steps fall away one by one, pulling my leg and making me trip and fall from the top of the stairs. I sprained my leg. Dis¬ solving and accumulating, proliferating and separat¬ ing.  A feeling of particles disintegrating and rever¬ berations from an invisible universe. What was it?"(4) The old-fashioned traditions of her eminent rural family threw this young girl with her strange obsessions into despairing loneliness.  Lacking the understanding of those around her, her only solace was to take fearful hallu¬ cinations she experienced and put them into art.  Opposed by her strict stern mother who felt that painting was an un¬ worthy profession, she inevitably became addicted to her creative work. The continuing vision of nets and dots with which she filled her large canvases in the New York studio were outgrowths of the lonely drawings she had made as a child. Formally speaking, her paintings adhered to a rigor- ous flatness, but with incredible irony they served as a means of saving her from nothingness. The obsessive repetition in the net paintings took new forms in the sixties.  One was the accumulation series started in 1961.  Kusama covered the surface of arm chairs, sofas, boats, etc., with stuffed cloth objects of a phallic shape.  The use of everyday objects and the fact that these objects were a kind of soft sculpture make it possible to see these works as early examples of pop art.  Interestingly enough, Claes Oldenburg, who made the first soft sculptures in 1962, said that in comparison to his own work which was concerned with the form of the entire object seen realisti¬ cally, Kusama's subject was not the object itself but the act of covering and multiplying the object.(5) By attaching large numbers of phalluses to an object, Kusama aggressively staked out a position of denying ordi¬ nary reality. Thus, her work was quite different from other pop art which made a wry comment on everyday reality. The method of accumulation was strongly connected to the obliterating effect of the nets and dots.  Seen from a differ- ent point of view, however, the relationship of the phallic cushions and the objects to which they were attached presented a more complex problem. In a fine catalogue arti¬ cle written for Kusama's retrospective exhibition at the Cen- ter for International Contemporary Arts, New York, Alex¬ andra Munroe made a perceptive observation on the accu¬ mulation series, There are definite themes in Kusama's sculpture which are revealed precisely in the choice of what she covers. Her subject is domesticity (thus, the liv- ing room furniture, the kitchen utensils, the bureau). Another subject is the fetishes of feminine parapher- nalia (the high heels, the short dresses, the pocket¬ books). (6) This is certainly unusual for objects connected with the realm of the subconscions.  We can perhaps draw two opposing conclusions about the phallic furniture.  One is that she is canceling out the “home” she was seeking as a mental refuge but could not find.  The “woman’s place” seems to be buried in threatening phalluses.  This unsettling but humorous view, however, is accompanied by hostility. The "hidden woman" has actually taken possession of in- numberable phalluses and holdly rules her own territory. There is a photograph of Kusama lying on a phallic sofa in the nude, staring back at the camera, as if affirming Munroe's interpretation of her sexual obsession as a femi¬ nist message, "a victory, the freedom from subjugation, from dependency and the glorious right to dominate back."(7) Through the accumulation method, Kusama moved from sculpture to environments in the mid-sixties, and in this area also can be considered a pioneer.  Her first envi¬ ronmental project was the "Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show" at the Gertrude Stein Gallery in 1964.  A  Boat Accumulation covered with phallic forms was placed on the floor of a small, dimly-lit room, and hundreds of black and white posters of the boat work were hung all over the four walls.  As Munroe states, "This wallpaper effect of repeat- ing a single large image prefigured Warhol's Cow Wallpaper of 1966,"(8) In 1966 she produced the "Endless Love Show" at the Casteallen Gallery. This work, also known as the "peep show," was a hexagonal room covered with mirrors on the inside. When one put one's head through the observation hole. "One only saw oneself from all directions reflected infi- nitely in the mirrors amid the myriad patterns of blinking, swirling lights."(9) This piece appeared six months prior to the similar Mirrored Room by Lucas Samaras at Pace Gal- lery. It is interesting that the warped nationalism of Samar- as, a Greek immigrant incessantly dealing with an identity crisis, and the obsession with accumulation and obliteration of Kusama should both have found expression in an envi- ronment of this type at about the same time. That same year, Kusama gained attention with the event Garden of Narcissus in which, without permission, she placed 1500 mirrored balls in the forecourt of the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  She also attempted to sell the balls (an act immediately forbidden by the authorities) and this guerrilla-type activity led to her subsequent nude demonstrations and love happenings in New York.  This was the time of the anti-Vietnam War movement, and she made stronger statements of political and social protest. She painted polka-dots on nude models or dressed them in "orgy gowns" for a "polka-dot festival." In 1973 when her bold, radical self-revelations no longer had a scandalous effect, she left New York. As we have seen. Kusama's achievement was wide- ranging and unique, and it can be approached from many different directions. She has been seen as a pioneer at the forefront of the postwar avant-garde and a producer of a pathological art brut. Her work has been seen as reflective of political and social realities and re-evaluated in terms of feminist and formalist criteria.  This exhibition makes it clear that she has continued working in the same way with- out letup and expanding the scale of the work so that it overwhelms the viewer.  The pure light that appeared to her in the nineties provides an image of another world which can only be described as disquieting and mysterious and intensely fascinating. Let us look at one of her most recent paintings. Reve- lation from Heaven (B). The paint is applied much flatter than in her early works with their firmly brushed texture. But there is a cosmic feeling, with shifts in emotional impulse and point of view, which continues to cause psycho- logical tension. The bright, rich colors which have replaced the former monochrome of her paintings contains fine, opti¬ cal vibrations which have a deeply enchanting effect on the viewer. The large accumulation, a boat covered with shock- ing pink phalluses, is no longer a radical sexual metaphor but has an elegant, mythical quality, appearing as the boat of a victorious, triumphant warrior. It also shares in the naive humor which runs consistently through Kusama's work. At the same time, we should remember that it is a vessel carrying a solitary spirit, reflecting a trauma which cannot be easily healed. The Mirror Room (Pumpkin), a further development of the "peep show," is the centerpiece of the presnet exhibi- tion. Looking inside a mirrored cube two meters on a side, one has a magnificent view of a delightful pumpkin-like object covered with black dots repeated infinitely in the mir- rors. This is a humorous but dignified contrivance, a finite box containing an infinite vision, creating a "nothingness" which "obliterates everyting, myself, others, and the uni- verse." The mirrored box is placed in the center of a room with the walls, floors, and ceiling painted vellow and cov- ered with black polka-dots. This room is a space dominated by Kusama's desire for obliteration.  The emptiness it conveys is the reverse of narcissism, but we suddenly realize that, entering this room, we have paradoxically enveloped ourselves in the womb of Kusama's endless ego.  This rapturous experience testifies to the modernity of the art created by this woman who has fought a lonely battle all her life. The exhibition includes another twenty works by Kusama.  Hopefully, it will assist in providing a renewed understanding of her achievement.
NOTES
14 (2) Donald Judd, "Reviews and Previews: New Names This Month— Yayoi Kusama," Art News, October 1959, p.17.  Quoted in Alexandra Munroe, "Obsession, Fantasy, and Outrage: The Art of Yayoi Kusama," Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York, 1989, p.18. (3) Yayoi Kusama, "The Wanderings and Struggles of My Soul," ibid., p.114. First printed in Geijutsu Seikatsu, November 1975. (4)   Yayoi Kusama, ibid., p.112. (5) Claes Oldenburg, quoted in Alexandra Munroe, op.cit., p.24. (6)  Alexandra Munroe, ibid., p.23. (7)  Ibid., p.24. (8) Ibid., p.25. (9) Ibid., p.27.