This Might Be the Dottiest Art You’ve Ever Seen

Known for her immersive installations that have made her an Instagram hit among a younger audience, With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever is typical of Yayoi Kusama’s oeuvre, allowing you to enter and become part of the work.

Within a white gallery covered in red polka dots of varying sizes, giant potted tulip sculptures seem to appear and disappear in the space. The sculptures are painted with the same red dots, diminishing the perception of depth.

Over 70,000 people enjoyed the work when it was first shown in the US at New York’s David Zwirner Gallery during its six-week run.

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Yayoi Kusama – who now has a dedicated museum in Tokyo – has been obsessed with repetitive patterns since her early paintings of the 1950s. Dots in particular have been repeatedly incorporated in her work, from her paintings to her sculptures and installations.

In the 1960s, she staged polka-dot “happenings” in New York and created one of her first Infinity Rooms with small phallic sculptures covered in red dots. She’s also created installations in which exhibition visitors cover the space in dot stickers, while for her fashion collaboration with Louis Vuitton she transformed clothing and accessories with her trademark polka dot.

For Kusama, the dot represents a personal obsession with “cosmic infinity” and the sublime. The Japanese artist has said of the visceral power of the dot: “Our Earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.”

Here’s what you can expect at the Marciano Art Foundation.

Yayoi Kusama: With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever is at Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

Want to see more art around the world? Take a look at Riga’s first biennial.