The source of Yayoi Kusama’s creative drive comes from a place that is deeply personal, as such, they are embodiment of her childhood hallucinatory experiences and visions overflowing from her inner world. In the early 1950s, shortly after her debut as an artist, Kusama received high reputation from art experts such as art critic, Shuzo Takiguchi and painter, Nobuya Abe. Kusama's works, which are free from any constraint, already showed outstanding originality at that time. At the same time, her works which are “all about my [her] inner issues” reveal common features with Surrealism, which focus on infinitely expanding imagination free from rational thoughts and expressions, as well as internal imagery.
　In this exhibition, we introduce Kusama's diverse works reminiscent of Surrealism, which portray images overflowing from her inner world and struggles in her mind as they really are. The exhibition includes two-dimensional works from the beginning of her artistic career, which use various materials and techniques, such as Nihonga (Japanese-style painting), oil painting, watercolor, and pastel. Other featured works include three-dimensional works presenting a consistent manifestation of images exemplified through the accumulation of organic forms, and an installation piece based on her hallucinatory experiences. Her latest large-scale series of acrylic paintings, My Eternal Soul, depict visions that come to her mind as she moves her brush. Please enjoy Kusama's richly diverse creations derived from images in her mind that never cease to proliferate from her early days to the present.

L: Corpses 1950
R: FLYING PEOPLE 1953
© YAYOI KUSAMA

L: MY SHOCK, AND JOY, WHEN FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN HEAVEN SPOKE TO ME 2020
R: I'm Here, but Nothing 2000
Installation view at Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano 2018
© YAYOI KUSAMA