Hokusai - the world of Japan. A mental hospital resident from Japan is the most expensive living artist.

Japanese painting is an absolutely unique movement in world art. It has existed since ancient times, but as a tradition it has not lost its popularity and ability to surprise.

Attention to traditions

The East is not only about landscapes, mountains and the rising sun. These are also the people who created his story. It is these people who have supported the tradition of Japanese painting for many centuries, developing and enhancing their art. Those who made a significant contribution to history are Japanese artists. Thanks to them, modern ones have retained all the canons of traditional Japanese painting.

Manner of execution of paintings

Unlike Europe, Japanese artists preferred to paint closer to graphics than to painting. In such paintings you will not find the rough, careless oil strokes that are so characteristic of the Impressionists. What is the graphic nature of such art as Japanese trees, rocks, animals and birds - everything in these paintings is drawn as clearly as possible, with solid and confident ink lines. All objects in the composition must have an outline. Filling inside the outline is usually done with watercolors. The color is washed out, other shades are added, and somewhere the color of the paper is left. Decorativeness is precisely what distinguishes Japanese paintings from the art of the whole world.

Contrasts in painting

Contrast is another characteristic technique used by Japanese artists. This could be a difference in tone, color, or the contrast of warm and cool shades.

The artist resorts to this technique when he wants to highlight some element of the subject. This could be a vein on a plant, a separate petal, or a tree trunk against the sky. Then the light, illuminated part of the object and the shadow under it are depicted (or vice versa).

Transitions and color solutions

When painting Japanese paintings, transitions are often used. They can be different: for example, from one color to another. On the petals of water lilies and peonies you can notice a transition from a light shade to a rich, bright color.

Transitions are also used in the image of the water surface and sky. The smooth transition from sunset to dark, deepening twilight looks very beautiful. When drawing clouds, transitions from different shades and reflexes are also used.

Basic motives of Japanese painting

In art, everything is interconnected with real life, with the feelings and emotions of those involved in it. As in literature, music and other forms of creativity, there are several eternal themes in painting. These are historical subjects, images of people and nature.

Japanese landscapes come in many varieties. Often in paintings there are images of ponds - a favorite piece of furniture for the Japanese. A decorative pond, several water lilies and bamboo nearby - this is what a typical picture of the 17th-18th century looks like.

Animals in Japanese painting

Animals are also a frequently recurring element in Asian painting. Traditionally it is a prowling tiger or a domestic cat. In general, Asians are very fond of and therefore their representatives are found in all forms of oriental art.

The world of fauna is another theme that Japanese painting follows. Birds - cranes, decorative parrots, luxurious peacocks, swallows, inconspicuous sparrows and even roosters - all of them are found in the drawings of oriental masters.

Pisces is an equally relevant theme for Japanese artists. Koi carp are the Japanese version of goldfish. These creatures live in Asia in all ponds, even in small parks and gardens. Koi carp is a kind of tradition that belongs specifically to Japan. These fish symbolize struggle, determination, and achieving your goal. It’s not for nothing that they are depicted floating with the flow, always with decorative wave crests.

Japanese paintings: depiction of people

People in Japanese painting are a special theme. Artists depicted geishas, ​​emperors, warriors and elders.

Geishas are depicted surrounded by flowers, always wearing elaborate robes with many folds and elements.

Sages are depicted sitting or explaining something to their students. The image of the old scientist is a symbol of the history, culture and philosophy of Asia.

The warrior was portrayed as formidable, sometimes terrifying. The long ones were drawn in detail and looked like wire.

Usually all the details of the armor are clarified using ink. Often naked warriors are decorated with tattoos depicting an eastern dragon. It is a symbol of Japan's strength and military might.

Rulers were depicted for imperial families. Beautiful clothes and decorations in men’s hair are what such works of art abound in.

Landscapes

Traditional Japanese landscape - mountains. Asian painters have succeeded in depicting a variety of landscapes: they can depict the same peak in different colors, with different atmospheres. The only thing that remains unchanged is the obligatory presence of flowers. Usually, together with the mountains, the artist depicts some kind of plant in the foreground and draws it in detail. The mountains and cherry blossoms look beautiful. And if they paint falling petals, the picture evokes admiration for its sad beauty. The contrast in the atmosphere of the picture is another wonderful quality of Japanese culture.

Hieroglyphs

Often the composition of a picture in Japanese painting is combined with writing. The hieroglyphs are arranged so that they look beautiful compositionally. They are usually drawn on the left or right of the painting. Hieroglyphs can represent what is depicted in the painting, its title, or the name of the artist.

Japan is one of the richest countries in history and culture. All over the world, the Japanese are generally considered to be pedantic people who find aesthetics in absolutely all manifestations of life. Therefore, Japanese paintings are always very harmonious in color and tone: if there are splashes of some bright color, it is only in the semantic centers. Using paintings by Asian artists as an example, you can study color theory, correct representation of form using graphics, and composition. The technique of execution of Japanese paintings is so high that it can serve as an example for working with watercolors and performing “washing” of graphic works.

Hello, dear readers – seekers of knowledge and truth!

Japanese artists have a unique style, honed by entire generations of masters. Today we will talk about the most prominent representatives of Japanese painting and their paintings, from ancient times to modern times.

Well, let's plunge into the art of the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Birth of Art

The ancient art of painting in Japan is primarily associated with the peculiarities of writing and is therefore built on the foundations of calligraphy. The first samples include fragments of bronze bells, dishes, and household items found during excavations. Many of them were painted with natural paints, and research gives reason to believe that the products were made earlier than 300 BC.

A new round of art development began with the arrival in Japan. Images of deities of the Buddhist pantheon, scenes from the life of the Teacher and his followers were applied to emakimono - special paper scrolls.

The predominance of religious themes in painting can be traced in medieval Japan, namely from the 10th to the 15th centuries. The names of the artists of that era, alas, have not survived to this day.

In the period of the 15th-18th centuries, a new time began, characterized by the emergence of artists with a developed individual style. They outlined the vector for the further development of fine art.

Bright representatives of the past

Tense Xubun (early 15th century)

In order to become an outstanding master, Xiubun studied the writing techniques of China's Song artists and their works. Subsequently, he became one of the founders of painting in Japan and the creator of sumi-e.

Sumi-e is an art style that is based on drawing in ink, which means one color.

Syubun did a lot to ensure that the new style took root in artistic circles. He taught art to other talents, including future famous painters, for example Sesshu.

Xiubun's most popular painting is called "Reading in a Bamboo Grove."

"Reading in the Bamboo Grove" by Tense Xubun

Hasegawa Tohaku (1539–1610)

He became the creator of a school named after himself - Hasegawa. At first he tried to follow the canons of the Kano school, but gradually his individual “handwriting” began to be traced in his works. Tohaku was guided by Sesshu graphics.

The basis of the works were simple, laconic, but realistic landscapes with simple titles:

• "Pines";
• "Maple";
• "Pine trees and flowering plants."

"Pines" by Hasegawa Tohaku

Brothers Ogata Korin (1658-1716) and Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

The brothers were excellent craftsmen of the 18th century. The eldest, Ogata Korin, devoted himself entirely to painting and founded the rimpa genre. He avoided stereotypical images, preferring the impressionistic genre.

Ogata Korin painted nature in general and flowers in the form of bright abstractions in particular. His brushes belong to the paintings:

• "Plum blossom red and white";
• "Waves of Matsushima";
• "Chrysanthemums".

"Waves of Matsushima" by Ogata Korin

The younger brother, Ogata Kenzan, had many pseudonyms. Although he was engaged in painting, he was famous more as a wonderful ceramist.

Ogata Kenzan mastered many techniques for creating ceramics. He was distinguished by a non-standard approach, for example, he created plates in the form of a square.

His own painting was not distinguished by splendor - this was also his peculiarity. He loved to apply scroll-like calligraphy or excerpts from poetry onto his items. Sometimes they worked together with their brother.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

He created in the style of ukiyo-e - a kind of woodcut, in other words, engraving painting. During his entire career, he changed about 30 names. His most famous work is “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” thanks to which he became famous outside his homeland.

"The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" by Hokusai Katsushika

Hokusai began to work especially hard after the age of 60, which brought good results. Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir were familiar with his work, and to a certain extent it influenced the work of European masters.

Ando Hiroshige (1791-1858)

One of the greatest artists of the 19th century. He was born, lived, and worked in Edo, continued the work of Hokusai, and was inspired by his works. The way he depicted nature is almost as impressive as the number of works themselves.

Edo is the former name of Tokyo.

Here are some figures about his work, which are represented by a series of paintings:

• 5.5 thousand – the number of all engravings;
• “100 Views of Edo;
• "36 views of Fuji";
• "69 stations of Kisokaido";
• "53 Tokaido Stations."

Painting by Ando Hiroshige

Interestingly, the eminent Van Gogh painted a couple of copies of his engravings.

Modernity

Takashi Murakami

An artist, sculptor, clothing designer, he earned a name already at the end of the 20th century. In his work, he follows fashion trends with classic elements, and draws inspiration from anime and manga cartoons.

Painting by Takashi Murakami

The works of Takashi Murakami are considered a subculture, but at the same time they are incredibly popular. For example, in 2008, one of his works was bought at auction for more than 15 million dollars. At one time, the modern creator worked together with the fashion houses Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.

Quiet Ashima

A colleague of the previous artist, she creates modern surreal paintings. They depict views of cities, streets of megalopolises and creatures as if from another universe - ghosts, evil spirits, alien girls. In the background of paintings you can often notice pristine, sometimes even frightening nature.

Her paintings reach large sizes and are rarely limited to paper media. They are transferred to leather and plastic materials.

In 2006, as part of an exhibition in the British capital, a woman created about 20 arched structures that reflected the beauty of the nature of the village and city, day and night. One of them decorated a metro station.

Hey Arakawa

The young man cannot be called just an artist in the classical sense of the word - he creates installations that are so popular in the art of the 21st century. The themes of his exhibitions are truly Japanese and touch on friendly relations, as well as work by the whole team.

Hei Arakawa often participates in various biennales, for example, in Venice, exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in his homeland, and deservedly receives various kinds of awards.

Ikenaga Yasunari

The contemporary painter Ikenaga Yasunari managed to combine two seemingly incompatible things: the life of modern girls in portrait form and traditional Japanese techniques from ancient times. In his work, the painter uses special brushes, natural pigmented paints, ink, and charcoal. Instead of the usual linen - linen fabric.

Painting of Ikenaga Yasunari

This technique of contrasting the depicted era and the appearance of the heroines creates the impression that they have returned to us from the past.

A series of paintings about the complexities of a crocodile’s life, recently popular in the Internet community, was also created by the Japanese cartoonist Keigo.

Conclusion

So, Japanese painting began around the 3rd century BC, and has changed a lot since then. The first images were applied to ceramics, then Buddhist motifs began to predominate in the arts, but the names of the authors have not survived to this day.

In the modern era, masters of the brush acquired more and more individuality and created different directions and schools. Today's fine art is not limited to traditional painting - installations, caricatures, artistic sculptures, and special structures are used.

Thank you very much for your attention, dear readers! We hope you found our article useful, and the stories about the life and work of the brightest representatives of art allowed you to get to know them better.

Of course, it is difficult to talk about all the artists from antiquity to the present in one article. Therefore, let this be the first step towards understanding Japanese painting.

And join us - subscribe to the blog - we will study Buddhism and Eastern culture together!

Has a very rich history; its tradition is vast, with Japan's unique position in the world greatly influencing the dominant styles and techniques of Japanese artists. It is a well-known fact that Japan has been quite isolated for many centuries, due not only to geography, but also to the dominant Japanese cultural tendency toward isolation that has marked the country's history. During the centuries of what we might call “Japanese civilization,” culture and art developed separately from those in the rest of the world. And this is even noticeable in the practice of Japanese painting. For example, Nihonga paintings are among the main works of Japanese painting practice. It is based on over a thousand years of tradition, and the paintings are usually created with brushes on either Vashi (Japanese paper) or Egina (silk).

However, Japanese art and painting have been influenced by foreign artistic practices. First, it was Chinese art in the 16th century and Chinese painting and the Chinese art tradition, which was particularly influential in several aspects. As of the 17th century, Japanese painting was also influenced by Western traditions. In particular, during the pre-war period, which lasted from 1868 to 1945, Japanese painting was influenced by impressionism and European romanticism. At the same time, new European artistic movements were also significantly influenced by Japanese artistic techniques. In art history, this influence is called "Japaneseism", and it is especially significant for the Impressionists, Cubists and artists associated with modernism.

The long history of Japanese painting can be seen as a synthesis of several traditions that create parts of a recognized Japanese aesthetic. First of all, Buddhist art and painting methods, as well as religious painting, left a significant mark on the aesthetics of Japanese paintings; water-ink painting of landscapes in the tradition of Chinese literary painting is another important element recognized in many famous Japanese paintings; paintings of animals and plants, especially birds and flowers, are what are commonly associated with Japanese compositions, as are landscapes and scenes from everyday life. Finally, ancient ideas about beauty from the philosophy and culture of Ancient Japan had a great influence on Japanese painting. Wabi, which means transient and rugged beauty, sabi (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and yugen (deep grace and subtlety) continue to influence ideals in the practice of Japanese painting.

Finally, if we concentrate on selecting the ten most famous Japanese masterpieces, we must mention ukiyo-e, which is one of the most popular genres of art in Japan, even though it belongs to printmaking. It dominated Japanese art from the 17th to 19th centuries, with artists belonging to this genre creating woodcuts and paintings of such subjects as beautiful girls, Kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers, as well as scenes from history and folk tales, travel scenes and landscapes. flora and fauna and even erotica.

It is always difficult to compile a list of the best paintings from artistic traditions. Many amazing works will be excluded; however, this list features ten of the most recognizable Japanese paintings in the world. This article will present only paintings created from the 19th century to the present day.

Japanese painting has an extremely rich history. Over the centuries, Japanese artists have developed a large number of unique techniques and styles that are Japan's most valuable contribution to the world of art. One of these techniques is sumi-e. Sumi-e literally means "ink drawing" and combines calligraphy and ink painting to create a rare beauty of brush-drawn compositions. This beauty is paradoxical - ancient yet modern, simple yet complex, bold yet subdued, undoubtedly reflecting the spiritual basis of art in Zen Buddhism. Buddhist priests introduced solid ink blocks and bamboo brushes to Japan from China in the sixth century, and over the past 14 centuries Japan has developed a rich heritage of ink painting.

Scroll down and see 10 Japanese Painting Masterpieces

1. Katsushika Hokusai “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”

One of the most recognizable Japanese paintings is “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife.” It was painted in 1814 by the famous artist Hokusai. By strict definition, this amazing work by Hokusai cannot be considered a painting, as it is a woodcut of the ukiyo-e genre from the book Young Pines (Kinoe no Komatsu), which is a three-volume shunga book. The composition depicts a young ama diver entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses. This image was very influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. The work influenced later artists such as Félicien Rops, Auguste Rodin, Louis Aucock, Fernand Knopff and Pablo Picasso.

2. Tessai Tomioka “Abe no Nakamaro writes a nostalgic poem while watching the moon”

Tessai Tomioka is the pseudonym of a famous Japanese artist and calligrapher. He is considered the last major artist in the bunjing tradition and one of the first major artists of the Nihonga style. Bunjinga was a school of Japanese painting that flourished in the late Edo era among artists who considered themselves literati or intellectuals. Each of these artists, including Tessaya, developed their own style and technique, but they were all great admirers of Chinese art and culture.

3. Fujishima Takeji “Sunrise over the Eastern Sea”

Fujishima Takeji was a Japanese artist known for his work in developing Romanticism and Impressionism in the yoga (Western style) art movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1905, he traveled to France, where he was influenced by the French movements of the time, particularly Impressionism, as can be seen in his painting Sunrise over the Eastern Sea, which was painted in 1932.

4. Kitagawa Utamaro “Ten types of female faces, a collection of ruling beauties”

Kitagawa Utamaro was a prominent Japanese artist who was born in 1753 and died in 1806. He is certainly best known for a series called “Ten Types of Women's Faces. A Collection of Dominant Beauties, Great Love Themes of Classical Poetry" (sometimes called "Women in Love", containing separate engravings "Naked Love" and "Thoughtful Love"). He is one of the most important artists belonging to the ukiyo-e woodcut genre.

5. Kawanabe Kyosai “Tiger”

Kawanabe Kyosai was one of the most famous Japanese artists of the Edo period. His art was influenced by the work of Tohaku, a 16th-century Kano school painter who was the only artist of his time to paint screens entirely in ink on a delicate background of powdered gold. Although known as a cartoonist, Kyōsai painted some of the most famous paintings in 19th-century Japanese art history. "Tiger" is one of those paintings that Kyosai used watercolor and ink to create.

6. Hiroshi Yoshida “Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi”

Hiroshi Yoshida is known as one of the major figures of the Shin-hanga style (Shin-hanga is an artistic movement in Japan in the early 20th century, during the Taisho and Showa periods, which revived the traditional art of ukiyo-e, which had its roots in the Edo and Meiji periods (XVII - XIX centuries)). He trained in the tradition of Western oil painting, which was adopted from Japan during the Meiji period.

7. Takashi Murakami “727”

Takashi Murakami is probably the most popular Japanese artist of our time. His works sell for astronomical prices at major auctions, and his work is already inspiring new generations of artists not only in Japan, but also abroad. Murakami's art includes a range of mediums and is usually described as superflat. His work is known for his use of color, incorporating motifs from Japanese traditional and popular culture. The content of his paintings is often described as "cute", "psychedelic" or "satirical".

8. Yayoi Kusama “Pumpkin”

Yaoi Kusama is also one of the most famous Japanese artists. She creates in a variety of media including painting, collage, scat sculpture, performance, environmental art and installation, most of which demonstrate her thematic interest in psychedelic colour, repetition and pattern. One of the most famous series of this great artist is the “Pumpkin” series. Covered in a polka dot pattern, a regular pumpkin in bright yellow is presented against a net background. Collectively, all such elements form a visual language that is unmistakably true to the artist's style, and has been developed and refined over decades of painstaking production and reproduction.

9. Tenmyoya Hisashi “Japanese Spirit No. 14”

Tenmyoya Hisashi is a contemporary Japanese artist who is known for his neo-nihonga paintings. He participated in the revival of the old tradition of Japanese painting, which is the complete opposite of modern Japanese painting. In 2000, he also created his new butouha style, which demonstrates a strong attitude towards the authoritative art system through his paintings. "Japanese Spirit No. 14" was created as part of the "BASARA" artistic scheme, interpreted in Japanese culture as the rebellious behavior of the lower aristocracy during the Warring States period, to deny those in power the ability to achieve an ideal lifestyle by dressing in opulent and luxurious clothing and acting freely. will that did not correspond to their social class.

10. Katsushika Hokusai “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”

Finally, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is probably the most recognizable Japanese painting ever painted. It is actually the most famous piece of art created in Japan. It depicts huge waves threatening boats off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture. Although sometimes mistaken for a tsunami, the wave, as the painting's title suggests, is most likely simply abnormally high. The painting is made in the ukiyo-e tradition.

Hokusai, an 18th-century Japanese artist, created a dizzying amount of artwork. Hokusai worked into old age, invariably asserting that “everything he did before the age of 70 was not worthwhile and not worth attention.”

Perhaps the most famous Japanese artist in the world, he always stood out from his fellow contemporaries for his interest in everyday life. Instead of depicting glamorous geishas and heroic samurai, Hokusai painted workers, fishermen, and urban genre scenes, which were not yet a subject of interest for Japanese art. He also took a European approach to composition.

Here's a short list of key terms to help you navigate Hokusai's work a little.

1 Ukiyo-e are prints and paintings popular in Japan from the 1600s to the 1800s. A movement in Japanese fine art that has developed since the Edo period. This term comes from the word "ukyo", which means "changeable world". Uikiye is a hint at the hedonistic joys of the burgeoning merchant class. In this direction, Hokusai is the most famous artist.

Hokusai used at least thirty pseudonyms throughout his life. Despite the fact that the use of pseudonyms was a common practice among Japanese artists of that time, he significantly exceeded other major authors in the number of pseudonyms. Hokusai's pseudonyms are often used to periodize the stages of his work.

2 The Edo period is the time between 1603 and 1868 in Japanese history, when economic growth and a new interest in art and culture were noted.

3 Shunrō is the first of Hokusai's aliases.

4 Shunga literally means "picture of spring" and "spring" is Japanese slang for sex. Thus, these are engravings of an erotic nature. They were created by the most respected artists, including Hokusai.

5 Surimono. The latest “surimono”, as these custom prints were called, were a huge success. Unlike ukiyo-e prints, which were intended for mass audiences, surimono were rarely sold to the general public.

6 Mount Fuji is a symmetrical mountain that happens to be the tallest in Japan. Over the years, it has inspired many artists and poets, including Hokusai, who published the ukiyo-e series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. This series includes Hokusai's most famous prints.

7 Japonism is the lasting influence that Hokusai had on subsequent generations of Western artists. Japonisme is a style inspired by the vibrant colors of ukiyo-e prints, lack of perspective, and compositional experimentation.

Yayoi Kusama is unlikely to be able to answer what formed the basis of her career as an artist. She is 87 years old, her art is recognized throughout the world. There will soon be major exhibitions of her work in the US and Japan, but she hasn't told the world everything yet. “It’s still on its way. I'm going to create this in the future," Kusama says. She is called the most successful artist in Japan. In addition, she is the most expensive living artist: in 2014, her painting “White No. 28” was sold for $7.1 million.

Kusama lives in Tokyo and has been voluntarily staying in a mental hospital for almost forty years. Once a day she leaves its walls to paint. She gets up at three o'clock in the morning, unable to sleep and wanting to spend her time productively at work. “I'm old now, but I'm still going to create more work and better work. More than I've done in the past. My mind is full of pictures,” she says.

(Total 17 photos)

Yayoi Kusama at an exhibition of his work in London in 1985. Photo: NILS JORGENSEN/REX/Shutterstock

From nine to six, Kusama works in his three-story studio from the comfort of a wheelchair. She can walk, but is too weak. A woman works on canvas laid out on tables or fixed to the floor. The studio is full of new paintings, bright works strewn with small specks. The artist calls this "self-silencing" - endless repetition that drowns out the noise in her head.

Before the 2006 Praemium Imperiale art awards in Tokyo. Photo: Sutton-Hibbert/REX/Shutterstock

A new gallery is opening soon across the street, and another museum of her art is being built north of Tokyo. In addition, two major exhibitions of her work are opening. “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors,” a retrospective of her 65-year career, opened at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington on February 23 and runs through May 14, before traveling to Seattle, Los Angeles, Toronto and Cleveland. The exhibition includes 60 paintings by Kusama.

Her polka dots cover everything from Louis Vuitton dresses to buses in her hometown. Kusama's work regularly sells for millions of dollars and can be found all over the world, from New York to Amsterdam. Exhibitions of the Japanese artist's works are so popular that measures are required to prevent crowds and riots. For example, in the Hirshhorn, tickets to the exhibition are sold for a certain time in order to somehow regulate the flow of visitors.

Presentation of the joint design of Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama in New York in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock

But Kusama still needs outside approval. When asked in an interview whether she had achieved her goal of becoming rich and famous decades ago, she said in surprise: “When I was little, I had a very hard time convincing my mother that I wanted to become an artist. Is it really true that I'm rich and famous?

Kusama was born in Matsumoto, in the mountains of central Japan, in 1929 into a wealthy and conservative family that sold seedlings. But it was not a happy home. Her mother despised her cheating husband and sent little Kusama to spy on him. The girl saw her father with other women, and this gave her a lifelong aversion to sex.

Louis Vuitton boutique window designed by Kusama in 2012. Photo: Joe Schildhorn/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

As a child, she began experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations. The first time she saw the pumpkin, she imagined that it was talking to her. The future artist coped with the visions by creating repeating patterns to drown out the thoughts in her head. Even at such a young age, art became a kind of therapy for her, which she would later call “art medicine.”

Work by Yayoi Kusama on display at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock

Kusama's mother was strongly opposed to her daughter's desire to become an artist and insisted that the girl follow the traditional path. “She wouldn’t let me draw. She wanted me to get married,” the artist said in an interview. - She threw away my work. I wanted to throw myself under a train. Every day I fought with my mother, and therefore my mind was damaged.”

In 1948, after the end of the war, Kusama went to Kyoto to study traditional Japanese nihonga painting with strict rules. She hated this type of art.

One of the exhibits from the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock

When Kusama lived in Matsumoto, she found a book by Georgia O'Keeffe and was amazed by its paintings. The girl went to the American embassy in Tokyo to find an article about O’Keefe in the directory there and find out her address. Kusama wrote her a letter and sent her some drawings, and to her surprise, the American artist replied to her.

“I couldn’t believe my luck! She was so kind that she responded to the sudden outburst of feelings of a modest Japanese girl whom she had never met in her life and had never even heard of,” the artist wrote in her autobiography “Infinity Net.”

Yayoi Kusama in her Louis Vuitton boutique window display in New York in 2012. Photo: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock

Despite O'Keeffe's warnings that life was very difficult for young artists in the United States, not to mention single young girls in Japan, Kusama was unstoppable. In 1957, she managed to obtain a passport and visa. She sewed dollars into her dresses to circumvent strict post-war currency controls.

The first stop was Seattle, where she held an exhibition in a small gallery. Then Kusama went to New York, where she was bitterly disappointed. “Unlike post-war Matsumoto, New York was in every sense an evil and violent place. It turned out to be too stressful for me, and I soon became mired in neurosis.” To make matters worse, Kusama found herself in complete poverty. An old door served as her bed, and she fished fish heads and rotten vegetables from trash cans to make soup from.

Installation Infinity Mirror Room - Love Forever (“Room with infinity mirrors - love forever”). Photo: Tony Kyriacou/REX/Shutterstock

This difficult situation prompted Kusama to immerse himself in his work even more. She began creating her first paintings in the Infinity Net series, covering huge canvases (one of them was 10 meters high) with mesmerizing waves of small loops that seemed to never end. The artist herself described them as follows: “White networks enveloping the black dots of silent death against the backdrop of the hopeless darkness of nothingness.”

Installation by Yayoi Kusama at the opening of the new building of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art at the Gorky Park in Moscow in 2015. Photo: David X Prutting/BFA.com/REX/Shutterstock

This obsessive-compulsive repetition helped drive away the neurosis, but it did not always save. Kusama constantly suffered from bouts of psychosis and ended up in a New York hospital. Ambitious and determined, and happily accepting the role of an exotic Asian woman in a kimono, she joined the circle of influential people in the arts and associated with such recognized artists as Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. Kusama later said that Warhol imitated her work.

Kusama soon gained a degree of fame and exhibited in crowded galleries. In addition, the artist’s fame became scandalous.

In the 1960s, while Kusama was obsessed with polka dots, she began staging happenings in New York City, encouraging people to strip naked in places like Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge and painting their bodies with polka dots.

Pre-display at Art Basel in Hong Kong in 2013. Photo: Billy Farrell/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

Decades before the Occupy Wall Street movement, Kusama staged a happening in New York's financial district, declaring that she wanted to "destroy the men of Wall Street with polka dots." Around this time, she began to cover various objects - a chair, a boat, a stroller - with phallic-looking protuberances. “I began creating penises to cure my feelings of aversion to sex,” the artist wrote, describing how this creative process gradually turned the terrible into something familiar.

Installation "Passing Winter" at the Tate Gallery in London. Photo: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Kusama never married, although she had a marriage-like relationship with artist Joseph Cornell for ten years while living in New York. “I didn’t like sex, and he was impotent, so we suited each other very well,” she said in an interview with Art Magazine.

Kusama became increasingly famous for her antics: she offered to sleep with US President Richard Nixon if he would end the war in Vietnam. “Let’s decorate each other with polka dots,” she wrote to him in a letter. Interest in her art itself faded away, she found herself out of favor, and money problems began again.

Yayoi Kusama during a retrospective of her work at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012. Photo: Steve Eichner/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock

News of Kusama's escapades reached Japan. They began to call her a “national disaster,” and her mother said that it would be better if her daughter died of the disease in childhood. In the early 1970s, impoverished and failed, Kusama returned to Japan. She registered in a psychiatric hospital, where she still lives, and sank into artistic obscurity.

In 1989, the Center for Contemporary Art in New York staged a retrospective of her work. This was the beginning, albeit slow, of a revival of interest in Kusama’s art. She filled a mirrored room with pumpkins for an installation that was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1993 and had a major exhibition at MoMa in New York in 1998. This is where she once staged a happening.

At the exhibition My Eternal Soul at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock

Over the past few years, Yayoi Kusama has become an international phenomenon. The Tate Modern Gallery in London and the Whitney Museum in New York held major retrospectives that attracted huge crowds of visitors, and its iconic polka dot pattern became highly recognizable.

At the exhibition My Eternal Soul at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock

The artist has no plans to stop working, but has begun to think about her mortality. “I don’t know how long I can survive even after death. There is a future generation that follows in my footsteps. It would be an honor for me if people enjoy looking at my work and if they are moved by my art.”

At the exhibition My Eternal Soul at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock

Despite the commercialization of her art, Kusama thinks about the grave in Matsumoto - not in the family crypt, she inherited it from her parents anyway - and how not to turn it into a shrine. “But I’m not dying yet. I think I will live another 20 years,” she says.

At the exhibition My Eternal Soul at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock