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Today, 89-year-old artist Yayoi Kusama is celebrated for her colourful polka-dot motifs. But her success and critical acceptance followed decades of struggle: against an abusive upbringing and lifelong mental illness; against a conservative Japanese art world; and against Western racism and sexism.
If you know Kusama best as a kooky old lady in a fringed wig, it might be a revelation to meet the ambitious young artist who moved to America after corresponding with Georgia O’Keeffe, becoming prominent in New York’s avant-garde art scene. But like her countrywoman Yoko Ono, Kusama lost her creative agency – and possibly her intellectual property – as male Pop Art peers eclipsed her work.
Filmed over more than a decade, Heather Lenz’s debut documentary lavishes attention on Kusama’s omnivorous practice, which has included installation, performance, painting, sculpture, fashion design, film and writing. The polka dots began as the artist’s hallucinations; she literally recruits us to see the world as she does. And the view is wonderful.
"Heather Lenz has made a loving respectful film about a subject well worth documenting. If you love art, this is a must-see." – POV Magazine
