Kusama takes on the infinite with a sly wink
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 26, 2024


Kusama takes on the infinite with a sly wink
Installation view, Yayoi Kusama: I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers, David Zwirner, New York, May 11—July 21, 2023 © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy of David Zwirner.

by Will Heinrich



NEW YORK, NY.- Once a high-profile fixture of the 1960s New York avant-garde, Yayoi Kusama has long since become an icon, in the sense of a visually recognizable brand. Her polka dots, her spectacular sculptures of flowers and pumpkins, and most of all her “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” which regularly draw crowds willing to wait hours for as little as one minute inside — it’s all as familiar, and as reliably perfect, as Coca-Cola. Like Coca-Cola, it also goes with anything: A recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton even included Instagram and Snapchat filters.

The downside of being a brand might be a certain predictability. But being so well known actually provides a visual thinker as adept and inventive as Kusama with a kind of head start on shocking and delighting her audience, because she can achieve so much just by tweaking our expectations. Her latest room, a 13-foot-high white cube with a fully mirrored interior titled “Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love,” is as close as pop art comes to a revelation.

Unlike most previous rooms, this one, which is showing at David Zwirner Gallery in Manhattan as part of the new exhibition “I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers,” has windows large enough to see through from the inside — 16 full, half or quarter circles colored red, yellow, green or blue. Each partial circle is hard against an edge, so that, with its reflection, it appears whole. Among other things, this means that your gaze doesn’t pause at the edge, instead gliding painlessly right into the mirror world.

Where previous infinity rooms flirted with claustrophobia, now, because you can keep half an eye on the everyday world, you’ll contemplate the infinite with bemusement. You might catch a reflection of your own legs superimposed on someone outside, as in a Dan Graham pavilion, or find yourself peering out curiously at the yellow-tinted gallery.

From other angles the circles are opaque, evoking a modernist disco party as they bubble into the distance. As usual, the best action happens in the corners, where you can watch miniature reflections of yourself walk right past one another — your ego snubbing your id, or vice versa — or convene four of your doppelgängers in an intimate tête-à-tête. I was so interested in all my own miniature critics that I didn’t notice the crisp, full-size reflection right in front of me until just before I stepped out.

Along with the mirrored room, “I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers” includes three enormous steel flowers; three yellow and black “pumpkin” walls polished to a sports-car shine; and nearly three dozen new acrylic paintings. Graphic, boldly colored compositions of dots and lines, the paintings reach across the room and grab you by the collar, particularly one untitled canvas from 2021, which is just slightly too busy to take in at a glance. The flowers are charming, if nothing more, but the pumpkins, with their hat-like stems and sexy undulations, are surprisingly complex and sophisticated.

Still, the “Infinity Mirror Room” is the star, because, as promised by the name, it offers something for everyone and can never be depleted. It’s a high-concept Japanese teahouse whose low yellow door forces you to stoop as you go in. It’s a metaphor for consciousness, the art work, or any other ostensibly sealed box of illusory vistas. It’s an Instagram-ready spectacle, famous for being famous. It’s the very definition of “what you see is what you get,” but you could never find every interesting detail, even if you stayed all day.

The only issue is the line, which is first come first served. As a critic, I got to skip to the front, so I asked a few visitors what they thought. Caterina Alves, visiting from London, had waited about an hour and felt it was totally worth it. “First of all, she’s amazing,” she said, adding, “This is the only free exhibition I’ve found of Kusama.” (The gallery will arrange visits for school groups, too.) Gina Noy, close to the door, felt that the hour-plus wait added to the experience. “It’s great,” she said, gesturing at the women standing behind her, “because we just chatted.” And Stephanie Helen, whom I caught up with after she came out, proposed this general advice: “If it’s something good, wait on line for it.”



‘Yayoi Kusama: I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers’

Through July 21 at David Zwirner Gallery, 519, 525 & 533 W. 19th St., Manhattan. 212-727-2070; davidzwirner.com.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

May 20, 2023

At Frieze New York 2023, one-person shows that shine

Kusama takes on the infinite with a sly wink

First edition Jane Austen novels soar past estimates at Hindman

Matthew Barney, back in the game

'Mattea Perrotta: In A Forgotten Tongue' now on view at Praz-Delavallade

Olympia Auctions to present European works of art and a stellar selection of jewellery

PDNB Gallery Exhibition: The Good Life by Nancy Baron

Socrates Sculpture Park presents Mary Mattingly 'Ebb of a Spring Tide'

Patricia Low Venezia presents Philip Colbert "House of the Lobster: from Pompeii to Venice"

A dazzling exhibition of African craft opens at Mingei International Museum

Saoirse Amira Anis: symphony for a fraying body now on view at Dundee Contemporary Arts

The first decade: 10 years at Nahmad Contemporary

SFMOMA opens expansive Frank Bowling exhibition: Frank Bowling: The New York Years 1966 to 1975

Legacy of style showcases compelling and exquisit works from a private collection at Rago/Wright

Beautiful bronze Tibetan Buddha brings a record $200,000 at Briggs Auction

London's Chiswick Auctions to offer Sally Jacobs costume designs created for British stage productions

With 'Primo,' Shea Serrano points his gleeful pen homeward

Review: Gibney Mines a too-familiar contemporary dance mode

This 'Magic Flute' has ring tones, bird tracks and a foley artist

Enredos: Eva Fàbregas is the first chapter of Centro Botín's new exhibition programme Enredos

Claire Chase is changing how people think of the flute

Spincar Magic: Transforming Car Photoshoots into Visual Masterpieces

PikaShow APK Free Download ( Latest Version ) For Android

The Benefits of Outsourcing 3d Animation Services for Your Business

Discovering the Art of Floral Arrangements and How Skilled Designers Create Stunning Displays to Captivate People

Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! HostRooster Unveils the Future of Work: Where AI, Futuristic Roles, and Trends Meet

Celebrate Father's Day in Paradise: Unforgettable Getaways in Cancún

How to Master the Art of Writing College Essays?






Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful