The dizzying, repetitive brushwork in this painting characterizes Yayoi Kusama’s “infinity nets,” which reproduce the overwhelming optical hallucinations the artist has experienced since childhood. Serving as the basis for Kusama’s practice spanning sculpture, installation, and performance, the infinity nets absorb the viewer into a similar experience, and have become Kusama’s signature artistic gesture.
Kusama moved to New York in 1958 and wasa key contributor to American Minimalism, Pop, and Post-Minimalism before returning to her native Japan in 1973, where she struggled with mental illness; in 1977 she checked herself into a psychiatric institution, where she continues to live. LACMA’s 1998 exhibition Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958–1968 helped restore Kusama’s critical reputation. Today, Kusama’s mirrored infinity rooms—direct offshoots of the infinity nets— have made her one of the most recognized artists
in the world.
Wall label, 2021.