The Yayoi Kusama Museum of Art is Set to Open in Tokyo

The Yayoi Kusama Museum will be located in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. The pure white, eye-catching structure was completed in 2014, designed by Japanese architectural firm Kume Sekkei. The museum’s five stories will be dedicated to Yayoi Kusama‘s extensive works, including her beloved installations, and will feature rotating art exhibitions twice per year. The museum will also house a reading room, gift shop, and outdoor space. The museum’s first exhibition will run from October 1, 2017, to February 25, 2018, entitled Creation Is a Solitary Pursuit, Love Is What Brings You Closer to Art.

Yayoi Kusama studied nihonga, or traditional Japanese painting, at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts beginning in 1948. It was not a happy time for the artist, who disliked the strict customs and rules of traditionalist art. She began to dabble in surrealism and cubism (gleaned from foreign media), and would soon become a major influencer in the 1960s New York Pop Art scene. But Kusama has always come back to the abstract, conceptualist art she for which is so well known. That is, brilliant colors, eye-catching patterns, and lots and lots of spots. Now 88 and in a wheelchair, the artist chooses to continue living at the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill in Shinjuku, as she has since the late 1970s. She still paints at her private studio nearby.

The Yayoi Kusama Museum will open its doors on October 1, 2017. The opening hours will be 11am to 5pm, Thursday through Sunday.