Art Masters Who Inspire (3): Yayoi Kusama, Queen of Polka Dots

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese conceptual artist inspired by Andy Warhol & Allan Kaprow and whose long-lived career has brought her success across the globe She has worked in a variety of media, like painting, collage, performance art, sculpture and installations. She is most famous for her clashing colors and repeat patterns of dots, lines and figurative elements that includes eyes, faces and flowers.

Yayoi Kusama with her recent works in Tokyo 2016

Named by Artsy as one of the “Top 10 Living Artists of 2015” and by “Time” magazine as one of the 100 most influential people, the prolific 87-year-old artist opened two exhibitions simultaneously at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, called, “Infinity Mirrors” from Feb 23 to May 14, 2017 and at the National Art Center, Tokyo, called “My Eternal Soul” from Feb 27 to May 27, 2017.

While her trademark dots were already part of her style back then, the “My Eternal Soul” exhibition in Tokyo tracked her progression from her earliest drawings to her current period, some of her work that are significantly in style, including “Sex Obsession” and “Flowers that Bloom” series.

Another of her trademark work is a oversized, vivid yellow pumpkin covered with an optical pattern of black spots painting and sculpture, following the success of her project at the Venice Biennale in 1993—a dazzling mirror room filled with pumpkin sculptures,. She also went on to produce major outdoor sculptural commissions, mostly in the form of brightly hued, monstrous plants and flowers.

Pumpkins Sulpture

Yoyoi Kusama’s splash of dots also arrived in the realm of fashions from the luxury brand, Louis Vuitton bags, sunglasses, shoes and coats, showcased at its French  boutiques around the world.

Louis Vuilton Boutique

She said, “Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity”. "I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe 2,000 paintings, as many as I can draw, I will keep painting until I die.” Is seems that the wealth of art as she continues to produce near her 90th birthday, is more than just a passion, it is her lifetime.



Paints life for art installation 2012

 

The Carps Streamers, Koinobori

Koinobori, (鯉のぼり) carp streamers or carp banners, decorate the landscape of Japan from April through early May, in celebration of Tango no Sekku (端午の節句), a calendrical event which is now designated a national holiday, Children's Day (子供の日) on May 5.

Also known as the Boys' Festival traditionally, it is an event expressing hope that each boy in the family will grow up healthy and strong like carps. Carp symbolizes courage and strength because of its ability to swim up a waterfall. During this festival, families with boys, like the doll festivals for girls, set up a warrior doll or a yoroi armor set in the house and raise the Koinobori outside the house, allowing it to flutter in the wind

Originally, the banners were used by samurai warriors on the battlefield. Whenever the warriors were on the battlefield, they wore full yoroi armor and flew banners. The banners were painted in various colors and shapes. Some of them had carp pictures on them. Then they became carp banners at the beginning of the modern age.

A typical koinobori set consists of, from the top of the pole down, a pair of arrow-spoked wheels (yaguruma) with a ball-shaped spinning vane followed by streamers (fukinagashi) down the pole that look like windsocks, with a black koinobori and a red koinobori representing the father and mother. If more children are in the household, an additional blue, green and then purple or orange koinobori are added. Traditionally, the set would contain a black koinobori representing the father, followed by a smaller, red koinobori representing his eldest son. (This is why the mother is not present in the children’s song, See below.) After the government's decree that converted Boy's Day into the present Children's Day, the holiday came to celebrate the happiness of both boys and girls.
 

 

Japanese iris bloom in spring and are especially associated with the month of May for Children’s Day. An alternate name for Japanese iris is shōbu (菖蒲 ) which is a homophone for martial spirit (尚武 ). During the Edo period Edo, it was celebrated with mock duels between boys using shōbu in place of swords. In some families, boys take iris-power water bath in the hope that they would grow up healthy and strong enough to survive through the summer heat.

Today, along with the raising of Koinobori carp streamers, children also eat kashiwa-mochi, sticky rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves, and other sweets and thank and show respect for relatives, parents, and teachers for support throughout their life.

 
Children’s Song, Koinobori, (鯉のぼりの歌)

 

やねより　たかい　こいのぼり        Higher than the roof-tops are the carp-streamers
おおきい　まごいは　おとうさん      The large carp is the father
ちいさい　ひごいは　こどもたち      The smaller carp are the children
おもしろそうに　およいでる            They seem to be having fun swimming.