{"id":81256,"date":"2026-08-27T10:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/81256\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:37:27","slug":"louis-vuitton-pays-tribute-to-japanese-artist-yayoi-kusama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/81256\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Vuitton Pays Tribute to Japanese Artist Yayoi Kusama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCalling her a \u201clegend\u201d and \u201cone of the greatest artists of contemporary art<\/a>,\u201d Louis Vuitton<\/a> paid tribute to Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who died at a Tokyo hospital on Aug. 14 at age 97.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Zwirner, who represented Kusama, cited \u201cmultiple organ failure\u201d as the cause of death.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe shaped her life and work with extraordinary freedom, imagination, and vision, leaving an indelible mark on the art world over the past decades,\u201d said Pietro Beccari, chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton<\/a>. \u201cHer influence on art and culture is immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKusama collaborated with the French luxury brand twice, in 2012 and again in 2023<\/a>, applying her beloved dots to handbags, accessories and ready-to-wear, which have become coveted and collectible, commanding high prices on resale sites.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe artist is best known for her obsession with polka dots, which she painted since age 10 and applied to canvases, tree trunks, entire rooms and even people. She first appeared on the art<\/a> scene in the \u201950s, and has also done collages, soft sculptures and performance art.<\/p>\n

\n\tVuitton brought attention to Kusama, who worked in obscurity early in her career, by erecting giant sculptures of her \u2014 forever hoisting a paint brush \u2014 outside its Paris headquarters, flagship stores, and Harrods in London.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAn inflatable sculpture of Yayoi Kusama at the Louis Vuitton flagship on Avenue des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Zwirner, Kusama \u201ccontinued to paint until shortly before her passing,\u201d and will go down in history books.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKusama\u2019s art influenced the histories of minimalism, pop art, and performance art; more recently her large-scale installations single-handedly pioneered what is now referred to as experiential art,\u201d he said, referring to her \u201cInfinity Mirror Rooms,\u201d which became a sensation in the era of smart phones and social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeccari said it was a \u201cprofound honor for everyone at Louis Vuitton to have collaborated with her. Her boundless creativity and singular vision have always been a tremendous source of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn behalf of Vuitton, he extended his condolences \u201cto her family, her loved ones, and all those who had the privilege of working alongside her. Her extraordinary legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\u201cThe<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe Pumpkin\u201d by artist Yayoi Kusama.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tKusama\u2019s first contact with Vuitton<\/a> stretches back to 2006, when then creative director Marc Jacobs met the artist at her Tokyo studio, and she presented the American designer with a Vuitton Ellipse bag, whose monogram canvas she had painted over with dots.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe subsequently invited her to collaborate on a line of clothes and accessories in 2012, some decorated with her tentacle-like \u201cnerves\u201d motif.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe encore project, even broader in scope, was conceived and realized in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic via Zoom and file-sharing technology.<\/p>\n

\n\tDelphine Arnault, then No. 2 at Vuitton, told WWD in 2022, just ahead of the launch: \u201cOne of the aspects of her work is happiness, and we thought it would be really refreshing after the pandemic to have the worlds of Vuitton and the world of Kusama meet again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 2012 interview with WWD<\/a>, Kusama reflected on a collection she sold at Bloomingdale\u2019s in the \u201980s.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBe it a sculpture or be it clothes, for me it is the same thing. It\u2019s my creation. I don\u2019t see any difference. It is part of my art,\u201d she said. \u201cI will be an artist until the end of my life. If with the power of art, we can touch the hearts of people, it\u2019s a wonderful thing so why not with the help of business. In that sense for me, business can also be a sort of art especially in the fashion world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Japanese<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tYayoi Kusama in Louis Vuitton at her Whitney Museum of American Art retrospective in 2012.. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPenske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calling her a \u201clegend\u201d and \u201cone of the greatest artists of contemporary art,\u201d Louis Vuitton paid tribute to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[867,4351,8,17,12331],"class_list":["post-81256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-art","tag-collaboration","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-louis-vuitton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}