Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective

Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective features groundbreaking new research, highlighting Kusama as one of today's most important living artists. With a focus on her career in Europe, the publication aims to cover a wide range of aspects of Kusama's oeuvre, which spans a period of over seventy years. The publication's purpose is to provide insights into the artist s work from various points of view, alongside angles that have previously been neglected.
Until now, Kusama's creative endeavours and exhibition practice in Europe have remained largely unexplored in both major retrospectives and publications. As such, the exhibition catalogue focuses on Kusama's creative period in Germany and Europe, underlining how from the 1960s the artist played an active role in disseminating her own art and promoting her exhibition practice, all within a thriving European network. In order to illustrate the revolutionary character and development of Kusama's practice, the catalogue examines her early 1960s exhibitions in Germany and Europe, which she co-organized.
Carefully selected archival material features previously unseen documentary photographs and film materials, as well as delving into Kusama's fashion label. This is an unprecedented opportunity to understand the breadth and depth of Kusama's projects, productions and performances in the 1960s and 1970s, illuminating her commitment to political and social issues in Europe, America and Japan. In addition to a diverse selection of artwork images and archival documents, the book will present numerous historical resources, including press releases written by the artist and early reviews of her exhibitions - all collated in the form of a comprehensive anthology.