Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama at Galerie Piece Unique. "...Yayoi Kusama established herself in New York from 1957 to 1973, where she frequented Donald Judd and Frank Stella. Rapidly assmilated to the New York avant-garde, the artist appeared as one of the precursors of pop art and of environmental art. At the end of the 1960’s in Europe she joined the group Zero of Piero Manzoni and Yves Klein.
Having returned to Japan in 1973, she resides in a psychiatric hopsital at her own request since 1977, monitored by doctor friends. Psychiatric treatment gave Kusama what her parents had always refused, - noted Shiho Nishimura, eminent psychiatrist- namely, the legitimacy to express herself, and the liberty to be insane.
She gained recognition during the 1980’s, and international acclaim during the 1990’s (Venice biennale in 1993 – where she represented Japan – retrospective of her work at MoMA in New York in 1998). This gave her an eminent place in the history of the avant-garde, as well as in the actuality of our time, where she exerts a considerable influence on the younger generation who regularly pays her regular homage."