Japanese artist who has a mental disorder, sells pictures for millions of dollars

She is mad and does not hide it. Queen of avant-garde art, the artist, whose work - endlessly repeating motifs poisonous red spots covering all available surfaces. In 2008, her work was sold for $ 5, 1 million - as long as it is a record among artists. Few people know what a difficult fate went Kusama.

"I do not like sex. I'm obsessed with sex "

Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto (Nagano Prefecture, Japan). Her family at first sight - quite wealthy owners of greenhouses and seed farms, but in reality they were experiencing serious difficulties. Kusama remembers his father as "a type that ever womanizing with women", and her mother, angry with his behavior, often not just plucked it out on her daughter, but also forced the father to spy on adventures. This espionage and spectacle of what is not allowed to see the child, influenced the perception of Kusama sex.

"I do not like sex. I'm obsessed with them. When I was a child, my father had a mistress, and I had to watch as they make love. My mother sent me to spy on him. I did not have sex with anyone for years. Obsession with sex and the fear of it sitting in my mind side by side. "

In 10 years, Kusama began to pursue obsessive hallucinations, which she described as "a flash of light, the aura or field full of points." These hallucinations Kusama interviewed revived colors and prints on fabrics sprawling and multiplied. She came to the delight of smooth white stones lying along the banks of the river at the house of her family.

In the Second World War, when Kusama was only thirteen, she was sent to work in a factory where she sewed parachutes for the Japanese army. Remembering the time spent in the factory, Kusama said she "spent his youth in the closed darkness." The war also strongly influenced the art Kusama and its relationship with the world.

She even tried to study at the School of Art, but was there for only a year - a Japanese style seemed to her too stagnant and boring. Already in the 50s, Kusama began to organize his first exhibition, and they were devoted to the ... points!

"Pea - is the way to infinity"

Kusama peas covered all available surfaces: walls, floors, painting, and later - household objects and naked bodies of his assistants. Peas became her "trademark" and "business card". Kusama herself talked about it a pattern like this: "We peas - the form of the sun, a symbol of energy of the whole world and our life, as well as the form of the moon and tranquility. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and incomprehensible. Pea become movement. Pea - is the way to infinity. "

In 27 years, Kusama became too crowded, too stuffy in feudal Japan, it is sent to conquer the US. States graciously accepted an eccentric artist, and very soon it gained a reputation as a leader of the avant-garde movement. Her mental illness to some extent complement the bright public image.

In the early 1960s, Kusama moved on new items: ladders, shoes and chairs, they were all covered with white phallic protrusions. "The accumulation of N 2" - a sofa, upholstered in soft rag spikes that look absurd and threatening. These works are closely related to sexuality: projections of the object looked like some parody of phallic power.

Another work dedicated to the "phallic theme" became Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field. Kusama is decorated with his trademark patterned objects that were placed in the mirror room, creating the illusion of an infinite field of surrealist objects.

Return to Japan

Kusama worked very productively on its account it was not one an exhibition she organized happenings and performances. But due to poor health Kusama was forced in 1973 to return to Japan.

Leaving New York almost forgotten artist, she has revived interest in his art at the Venice Biennale in 1993, where she represented Japan.

Today Kusama lives in a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where he continues to create work from the mid-1970s. Her art studio is right next to the hospital.