Abstract
Abstract The article discusses how identity was negotiated by the intersectional Japanese artist Kusama Yayoi. I focus on her body-centred works of the 1960s to showcase how she addressed various aspects of identity during her time in the U.S., and how she expressed social critique by means of bodily performance. In this article I will analyse and interpret one photograph by the artist previously discussed in my master’s thesis, an image of the so-called Presidential Orgy, a series of happenings staged in Kusama’s studio in 1968. I apply the method of visual analysis and draw on a variety of sources, both literary and visual, to give insight into the historical background, since it is crucial not to look at Kusama’s artworks as isolated objects. Rather, we need to understand that rapid changes in the art world, as well as in gender relations, the rise of popular media, and major societal events like the changes in the aftermath of World War II on the one hand, and the ongoing Vietnam War on the other, were pivotal factors causing cultural upheavals that became important themes in Kusama’s art in the 1960s.
Highlights
While Kusama Yayoi 草間彌生, who was rated the most expensive female artist alive in 2015 (Forbes 2015), is critically acclaimed today and known worldwide for her Infinity Mirror Room installations as well as her recurring Polka dots, her formative years as an international artist in the 1960s are comparatively less researched
Through the person and art of Kusama Yayoi, one of the first female Japanese artists who made a career in the U.S, we can observe both a clash and an intersection between Japan and the U.S, as well as between the establishment of high art institutions and the rising influence of popular media—or rather, the diminishing importance of such binaries
The performing bodies in her happenings and performances posed questions about identity, since gender and ethnicity are presented as roles to be assumed at will
Summary
While Kusama Yayoi 草間彌生, who was rated the most expensive female artist alive in 2015 (Forbes 2015), is critically acclaimed today and known worldwide for her Infinity Mirror Room installations as well as her recurring Polka dots, her formative years as an international artist in the 1960s are comparatively less researched. Her case and especially her activities during that decade are very interesting, for research in art history and in Japanese studies, because her example highlights how cultural identities were shifting. Kusama’s art cannot be seen as either commercial or anti-capitalist, Western or Eastern, high or low art, since she embraces and merges such contrasting ideas in her work
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