Yayoi Kusama

July 12–Sept 30, 2012

The artist Yayoi Kusama with her signature orange wig, wearing a print that is repeated in the backdrop.
The artist Yayoi Kusama with her signature orange wig, wearing a print that is repeated in the backdrop.

Yayoi Kusama in Yellow Tree furniture room at Aich triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2010 (detail). © Yayoi Kusama. Image courtesy Yayoi Kusma Studio Inc.; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; and Gagosian Gallery New York

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The artist Yayoi Kusama with her signature orange wig, wearing a print that is repeated in the backdrop.
The artist Yayoi Kusama with her signature orange wig, wearing a print that is repeated in the backdrop.

Yayoi Kusama in Yellow Tree furniture room at Aich triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2010 (detail). © Yayoi Kusama. Image courtesy Yayoi Kusma Studio Inc.; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; and Gagosian Gallery New York

This audio guide features selected works from Yayoi Kusama and the artist's installation, Fireflies on the Water.

View guide

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection

View 3 works

In the News

Review: “Vivid Hallucinations From a Fragile Life”
—The New York Times

"[Kusama's] works are triumphant, humorous celebrations of potential, vulnerability and defiance"
—The Boston Globe

"Kusama’s is a wonderful behind-the-music story, the outsider with destiny in her sights, who moves to the big city to prove herself, then collapses under the strain of striving, only to stage a comeback, bigger than ever."
—New York Magazine

Video: Mo Rocca interviews Yayoi Kusama
—CBS Sunday Morning

"Fame Becomes Her"
—W Magazine

In celebration of her retrospective at the Whitney Museum, Yayoi Kusama transformed two downtown Manhattan sites near the Whitney’s future home in the Meatpacking District.

On view through October 15, Kusama's Yellow Trees building wrap transforms a tall building into a giant canvas. The scrim at 345 West 14th Street at 9th Avenue features a detail of the original painting Yellow Trees (1994), greatly enlarged so that its powerful sinuous patterns envelop the new twelve-story construction project.

From early summer through September 25, visitors to Hudson River Park's Pier 45 enjoyed Kusama's vibrant multi-part installation, Guidepost to the New Space. Bright red polka-dotted forms nestled in the grass like a herd of otherworldly abstractions, transforming the pier and its spectacular urban skyline.

Support for Yellow Trees provided by DDG Partners. Support for Guidepost to the New Space provided by Gagosian Gallery New York and Hudson River Park Trust.

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.