Kusama's Mushrooms

V. Chaban

2016, gouache on paper, approx 9" x 12", from the Sheppard Collection

Original: 1995, [acrylic on canvas?] [size?]

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, film, and installation, to produce a body of work unified in its use of repetitive, densely patterned motifs. Considered a predecessor of Pop Art, she was born on March 22, 1929 in Matsumoto City, Japan and moved to New York in 1958, quickly establishing herself as an important member of the avant-garde alongside Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Eva Hesse. She has explained her use of repetition and polka dots as a means to explore infinity and obsessively negate the self, such as in her immersive installations Infinity Mirror Room (1965) and Fireflies on the Water (2002).