KUSAMA Yayoi

草間彌生 (1929~)

Kusama Yayoi, born and raised in the city of Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture, is one of the most important Japanese artists of the post-war period. Between 1958 and 1972 she mainly lived in New York. Her most famous artworks, actions and happenings were created during this period. Her trademark is polka dots, coloured dots that she paints on canvases, sculptures and people. In 2006, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale (“Nobel Prize of the Arts”) in the field of painting, and in 2009 she was named Bunka Kōrōsha, a person of special cultural merit. In September 2017 the artist opened her own museum in Tôkyô. In spring 2021, the Gropius Bau in Berlin dedicates the first comprehensive retrospective in Germany to Kusama.