Dezeen Magazine

Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Louisiana Museum features six decades of spots

Installations that demonstrate Yayoi Kusama's obsession with polka dots are on show at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, as part of an exhibition that presents six decades of the Japanese artist's work (+ slideshow).

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

Divided into six themed areas – Sprouts, Infinity, Accumulations, The Priestess of the Polka Dots, Cosmos and Kusama's World – In Infinity brings together everything from the 86-year-old artist's early drawings and sketchbooks, through to her distinctive polka dot installations.

Well known for her use of repetitive spot patterns, Kusama has been the subject of major exhibitions in the US, UK, Taiwan and Mexico, although In Infinity is the first Scandinavian retrospective of her work.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

Key pieces on display include Kusama's Infinity Nets paintings – canvases covered in minute dots – and original design objects and costumes created while the artist was running the Kusama Fashion Company in the 1960s.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

The artist's Polka Dot Love Room installation, which was first shown in 1967, has been restored and is on display in full for the first time since the 1960s.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

Many paintings and sculptures that had previously not been shown outside of Japan are included, as well as a series of sculptural pieces covered in soft white protrusions.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

Visitors can also experience Kusama's Mirror Room (Pumpkin) – a polka dot-covered orange and black mirrored installation originally shown at the Venice Biennale in 1993.

More recent collaborations with fashion brands Issey Miyake and Louis Vuitton are on show, including a full-scale recreation of the multi-tentacled spotted window decoration created for Vuitton.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

The artist collaborated with the fashion label in 2012, for which she created a collection of garments and a concept store at Selfridges department store in London.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

The exhibition closes with Kusama's My Eternal Soul series of paintings – an ongoing project.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

In Infinity opened on 17 September 2015 and continues until 24 January 2016 at the South Wing of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, situated on the coast north of Copenhagen.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

Earlier this year the museum hosted the third and last of its Architecture, Culture and Identity exhibitions, with a major survey of architecture and design in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Infinity installation by Yayoi Kusama for Louisiana MoMa

In 2014 Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson filled an entire wing of the building with a landscape of stones, intended to emulate a riverbed.