Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s documentary, “Yayoi-Infinity,” will examine the life of an artist who’s overcome multiple obstacles to become one of the top-selling female artists in the world.
Know for her bold polka-dot-themed paintings, sculptures, installations and her Infinity mirror rooms, the 88-year-old Kusama was born in in Matsumoto, Kusama. She studied at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts where she learned Nihonga painting.
Kusama embraced a more abstract approach in the early ’50s when she began to paint her signature polka dots or as she described them, “infinity nets,” which she said were taken from hallucinations.
Challenged by sexism and push back from her own mother, Kusami at 27 left Japan and eventually moved to New York where she was mentored for a time by artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
In 1973, She returned to Japan where she began to write novels, short stories, and poetry. Four years after her return, she checked herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill where she chose to remain as a permanent resident.
Yayoi Kusama: Yayoi-Infinity is in theaters September 7, 2018. Check out the trailer below.
