From Zero to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama in Context
Friday, June 2, 2000 - Sunday, August 13, 2000
In stark contrast to the bold graphics and intense political statements of Latino posters, From Zero to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama in Context is an introspective exhibition of the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in the context of European and American Art of the mid-1950's to early 1970's. Drawn entirely from the Blanton's permanent collection, the exhibition highlights the artist's participation with the European avant-garde group Zero, and contextualizes her important impact on American Pop and Minimalist artists.
Intimate, delicate and strangely obsessive, nine rarely seen paintings on paper by pioneering Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama are examined in From Zero to Infinity. Though they are small in scale, these early works-incorporating meticulous motifs of scattered dots and intricate, fluctuating nets which she would develop further in her "infinity net" paintings and accumulation pieces-attracted the attention of numerous artists interested in repeated patterns, infinite space, and the use of everyday materials.
From 1958 to 1970 Kusama lived and worked in New York, and her work was shown extensively in both the United States and in Europe. In New York, she exhibited with major painters and sculptors of the time, including Claus Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. Abroad, she was included in exhibitions of the Nul and Zero groups, together with such figures as Gunther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene. Each of these artists is represented in the exhibition, adding depth to our contemporary understanding of Kusama's work.
After her return to Japan in the early 1970's Kusama was largely forgotten in this country. Recently, however, she has regained prominence, largely due to renewed interest and
enthusiasm from a younger generation of artists and recent retrospectives of her work.
This exhibition exemplifies the mission of the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art to provide curatorial and educational opportunities to University students, while at the same time offering a demonstration of the depth and strength of the Museum's permanent collections.
Intimate, delicate and strangely obsessive, nine rarely seen paintings on paper by pioneering Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama are examined in From Zero to Infinity. Though they are small in scale, these early works-incorporating meticulous motifs of scattered dots and intricate, fluctuating nets which she would develop further in her "infinity net" paintings and accumulation pieces-attracted the attention of numerous artists interested in repeated patterns, infinite space, and the use of everyday materials.
From 1958 to 1970 Kusama lived and worked in New York, and her work was shown extensively in both the United States and in Europe. In New York, she exhibited with major painters and sculptors of the time, including Claus Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. Abroad, she was included in exhibitions of the Nul and Zero groups, together with such figures as Gunther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene. Each of these artists is represented in the exhibition, adding depth to our contemporary understanding of Kusama's work.
After her return to Japan in the early 1970's Kusama was largely forgotten in this country. Recently, however, she has regained prominence, largely due to renewed interest and
enthusiasm from a younger generation of artists and recent retrospectives of her work.
This exhibition exemplifies the mission of the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art to provide curatorial and educational opportunities to University students, while at the same time offering a demonstration of the depth and strength of the Museum's permanent collections.