Infinity Net : the Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama

Kusama, Yayoi; Ralph McCarthy

ISBN 10: 0226464989 / ISBN 13: 9780226464985

Published by University Of Chicago Press, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 97058

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Infinity Net : the Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226464989
• ISBN 13: 9780226464985
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In 1957, encouraged by Georgia O’Keeffe, artist Yayoi Kusama left Japan for New York City to become a star. By the time she returned to her home country in 1973, she had established herself as a leader of New York’s avant-garde movement, known for creating happenings and public orgies to protest the Vietnam War and for the polka dots that had become a trademark of her work. Her sculptures, videos, paintings, and installations are to this day included in major international exhibitions.

Available for the first time in English, Infinity Net paints a multilayered portrait of this fascinating artist. Taking us from her oppressive childhood in postwar Japan to her present life in the psychiatric hospital where she voluntarily stays—and is still productive—Kusama’s autobiography offers insight into the persona of mental illness that has informed her work. While she vibrantly describes the hallucinatory episodes she experiences, her tale is punctuated by stories of her pluck and drive in making her artistic voice heard. Conveying the breadth and ambition of her own work, Kusama also offers a dazzling snapshot of 1960s and 1970s New York City and her encounters with its artists—she collaborates with Andy Warhol, shares an apartment with Donald Judd, and becomes romantically entangled with Joseph Cornell. Replete with the sense of the sheer necessity within an artist to create, Infinity Net is an energetic and juicy page-turner that offers a glimpse into Kusama’s exhilarating world.

About the Author

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who works in many mediums and is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Praemium Imperiale. She is the author of Hustlers Grotto of Christopher Street, among other books. Ralph McCarthy is a literary translator whose work includes Dazai Osamu’s Self Portraits and Blue Bamboo and Ryu Murakami’s Sixty-Nine and Love & Pop.