Yayoi Kusama Quotes on Art

Yayoi Kusama is a famous Japanese painter, sculptor and installation artist. She is best known for her dots and spot works. Famous Yayoi Kusama works include “Infinity Room”, “Pumpkin Soft Sculpture”, “Dots Obsession”, “The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens”, “Ascension of Polka Dots” and “Infinity Nets”.

Mini biography: Born Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生) on the 22nd of March, 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan. Kusama has been one of the most commercially successful female artists ever. Common themes and recurring symbols used in her work in various media include pumpkins, flowers, butterflies, bold colors and lots of polka dots. In 2014 her 1960 work from her Infinity Nets series titled White No. 28 sold for $7.1 million USD at a Christie’s auction.

List of Yayoi Kusama Art Quotes

My desire was to predict and measure the infinity of the unbounded universe, from my own position in it, with dots.. an accumulation of particles forming the negative spaces in the net. How deep was the mystery? Did infinities exist beyond our universe? In exploring these questions I wanted to examine the single dot that was my own life. Yayoi Kusama

I am too busy with myself to worry about a man-woman problem. Since I find a refuge in my work, I cannot be bullied by men. Yayoi Kusama

I don’t consider myself an artist; I am pursuing art in order to correct the (mental) disability that began in my childhood. Yayoi Kusama

The art world in Japan ostracized me for my mental illness. That is why I decided to leave Japan and fight in New York. I chose America because of my connections. Besides, I believed the future lay in New York. Yayoi Kusama

From a very early age I used to carry my sketchbook down to the seed harvesting grounds. I would sit among beds of violets, lost in thought. One day I suddenly looked up to find that each and every violet had its own individual, human-like facial expression, and to my astonishment they were all talking to me. Yayoi Kusama

By obliterating one’s individual self, one returns to the infinite universe. Yayoi Kusama

In my childhood, I experienced so much hardship, all thanks to ‘feminism’. My mother wielded a tremendous amount of authority and my father was always dispirited. Yayoi Kusama

My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings. All my works in pastels are the products of obsessional neurosis and are therefore inextricably connected to my disease. Yayoi Kusama

Bring on Picasso, bring on Matisse, bring on anybody! I would stand up to them all with a single polka dot. Yayoi Kusama

Since I rely on my own interior imagination, I am not concerned with whatever they want to say about me. Yayoi Kusama

Polka dots symbolize disease. The couch bristled with phalluses. The macaroni-strewn floor symbolizes fear of sex and food, while the nets symbolize horror toward infinity of the universe. We can not live without the air. Yayoi Kusama

I am an obsessional artist. People may call me otherwise, but I simply let them do as they please. I consider myself a heretic of the art world. I think only of myself when I make my artwork. Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama Self Portrait

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