{"id":595144,"date":"2026-09-09T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595144\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:28:09","slug":"amsterdam-museum-unveils-kusama-show-weeks-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595144\/","title":{"rendered":"Amsterdam museum unveils Kusama show weeks after death"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMSTERDAM \u2013 More than 300 works by Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama go on display in Amsterdam from Sept 11, an exhibit that has become a tribute to the \u201cpolka dot queen\u201d who died in August.<\/p>\n

The exhibition at Amsterdam\u2019s Stedelijk Museum features dozens of ceramics, etchings and drawings from Kusama, one of the world\u2019s best-known artists, as well as her trademark polka dot pumpkins.<\/p>\n

Around 50 of the pieces have never been displayed before, said curator Leontine Coelewij, who pulled together works from several museums in Japan, including in Tokyo and Kusama\u2019s birthplace, Matsumoto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the show will be a highlight for people who do not know the work of Kusama, but also people who\u2019ve seen her work on several occasions,\u201d Coelewij said during a press preview on Sept 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be many surprises,\u201d added the 62-year-old curator.<\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the exhibition is a huge \u201cinfinity room\u201d with black walls covered by yellow polka dots, featuring mirrors that give visitors the disorienting impression the dots are never-ending.<\/p>\n

Kusama died aged 97 in August<\/a>, after a career spanning 70 years that saw her work exhibited around the world.<\/p>\n

She channelled hallucinations and well-documented battles with mental illness into vibrant art that inevitably featured polka dots \u2013 how she saw the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think is very characteristic of Kusama is that, for her, making art and drawing what went on in her mind was a way to deal with the difficult issues she had,\u201d said Coelewij.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt can be like a healing power. And that has been so in her early years, but also continued all through the years,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u2018Marvellous tribute\u2019<\/p>\n

After studying art in Japan, Kusama moved to the United States in the late 1950s, becoming a leading figure in New York\u2019s avant-garde scene.<\/p>\n

On her return to Japan in the 1970s, she checked herself into a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, where she lived and worked right up to her death.<\/p>\n

News of her death came as the Amsterdam exhibition was being installed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very sad when we heard the news. On the other hand, we could say that this exhibition is a great celebration of her work, a tribute to a wonderful life and a wonderful body of work,\u201d said Coelewij.<\/p>\n

Curators decided not to make any changes to the exhibition, as they had worked with Kusama on the composition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how she wanted the show to be,\u201d said Coelewij.<\/p>\n

But Coelewij said she felt a weighty responsibility to put on an exhibit that has come to mark what she called a \u201cfull stop\u201d on Kusama\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the end with her passing, and there will be no more new works,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we can take a step back and look at her work and see this as a marvellous tribute to what she has done through the years, more than 70 years of making art.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMSTERDAM \u2013 More than 300 works by Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama go on display in Amsterdam from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-595144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}