The artist Yayoi Kusama will be exhibiting more than 160 paintings, drawings and sculptures, some of them for the first time in Europe, about her life and work at Serralves in Porto from Wednesday.
The exhibition “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 – TODAY”, which will be on display until September 29th, is organized chronologically and by theme: Infinity, Accumulation, Radical Connectivity, Biocosmic and Death and Life Force, the coordinator of the show at Serralves, Filipa Loureiro, explained to journalists today.
The more than 160 works tell the story of the life and work of the 95-year-old Japanese artist and explore her career from her first drawings, made as a teenager during the Second World War, to her most recent works of immersive art, she said.
The works, ranging from sculptures and installations to paintings and archival materials, depict interconnection, existence, self-portraiture, the idea of death, the incessant struggle for life, nature and the circle, said Filipa Loureiro, noting that Kusama faced health problems throughout her life.
The curator of the exhibition emphasized that the artist expresses feelings and emotions through dots, balls, pumpkins and mirrors.
Filipa Loureiro revealed that the exhibition will not be confined to the museum, but will also extend to Serralves Park where, in April, her famous yellow pumpkins with black ‘balls’ – one of her most iconic references – and the “Narcissus Garden” (stainless steel spheres of different sizes) will be exhibited.
“Through this exhibition, we’re trying to show the relationship and incessant search between interior and exterior that is present in all of Kusama’s work,” she said.
The exhibition includes images that Kusama has painted of herself throughout her career, conveying her psychological and emotional experiences and the idea of infinity, something permanent in the Japanese artist’s work, she said.
Also on display will be older works by Kusama that speak of the destruction she witnessed during the Second World War, works with circular patterns as a metaphor for the sun, earth and moon, and ‘semi-representational’ pieces in strong, saturated colors with profiles of women and flower buds in scenes that merge human and plant life, she added.
The show ends with the infinite mirrored painting “Dot’s Obsession – Aspiring to Heaven’s Love”, a large installation of reflective mirrors and the circumferences characteristic of his work, where visitors are confronted with large balloons covered in white circles suspended from the ceiling and a mirrored cubic environment.
The exhibition was conceived and organized by the M+ Museum of Visual Culture in Hong Kong, in collaboration with the Serralves Foundation and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
