{"id":383525,"date":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383525\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","slug":"famed-japanese-artist-kusama-featured-in-new-german-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383525\/","title":{"rendered":"Famed Japanese artist Kusama featured in new German exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) \u2014 A mirror room dappled with colored dots. Contorted, bright sculptures of flowers on a rooftop at the foot of Cologne\u2019s famed cathedral. A vast showroom with giant octopus-like tentacles that offer up a mesmerizing meander through space and obstacles.<\/p>\n

The renowned Museum Ludwig in the western German city is celebrating its 50th anniversary by opening a nearly five-month exhibit on Saturday, with more than 300 works of the famed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.<\/p>\n

The trek through the time and transformation of the now nonagenarian artist<\/a> assembles works ranging from her first drawing in the mid-1930s to a newly commissioned \u201cInfinity Mirror Room\u201d made for the show.<\/p>\n

Kusama, who turns 97 this month, has become a social media sensation with her use of bright colors and oozy shapes<\/a> that reflect her feeling of awe about life. Her own life carried her from patriarchal postwar Japan to New York to the Flower Power and anti-Vietnam war movements in the 1960s. She returned home to Japan in 1973.<\/p>\n

Curator Stephan Diederich says the exhibit, which runs through Aug. 2, is \u201cvery diverse, wide-ranging, and depicts an immensely rich, creative life spanning more than eight decades, still looking ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Works include her series \u201cMy Eternal Soul, 2009-2021,\u201d including a patchwork of paintings, to \u201cThe Universe as Seen from the Stairway to Heaven\u201d \u2014 made of mirror, glass and acrylic sheet. The museum entrance hosts her widely-recognized 2009 \u201cPumpkin\u201d of fiber-reinforced plastic and polyurethane paint, belonging to Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The rooftop display features painted-bronze sculptures \u201cFlowers That Speak All about My Heart Given to the Sky\u201d from 2018, and \u201cI\u2019m Here, but Nothing,\u201d whose origins date back to 2000, involves fluorescent stickers and ultraviolet fluorescent lights illuminating a room of household objects.<\/p>\n

\u201cKusama is undoubtedly one of the most significant artists of our time,\u201d he said. \u201cHer mirror rooms, balloon installations and polka dots have achieved cult status and are now iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her multifaceted works often relate to the world of nature. She grew up in the greenhouses and fields of her family\u2019s enormous seed nursery in Matsumoto, Japan. When Kusama was young, she began having vivid hallucinations, some of which involved polka dots or flowers spreading around her. She has fought through existential anxieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my more than 70 years as an artist, I have always been in awe of the wonder of life,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cMore than anything, this strong sense of the life force in artistic expression is what has supported me and gave me power to overcome feelings of depression, hopelessness and sadness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been guided by my belief in this power,\u201d Kusama said.<\/p>\n

Diederich said that Kusama has been living in relative seclusion in a Tokyo clinic for years, and communicated \u201cindirectly\u201d with the curatorial team. She still works every day, \u201cas far as her health allows\u201d and has taken an active interest in the show, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLOGNE, Germany (AP) \u2014 A mirror room dappled with colored dots. Contorted, bright sculptures of flowers on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,10852,114696,366,18,117,3334,6621,19,17,386,3521,968,175834,12167,66,10824],"class_list":["post-383525","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-asia-pacific","tag-cologne","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-germany","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-japan","tag-lifestyle","tag-new-york","tag-stephan-diederich","tag-visual-arts","tag-world-news","tag-yayoi-kusama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116223215082097310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}