Review by C.J. Bunce
This year Yayoi Kusama turned 96 years old. That fact alone is a testament to humanity’s ability to persevere in the face of a life filled with adversity. Kusama’s artwork is unusual, even for someone born in the Roaring Twenties. Writer/artist Simon Elliott provides an overview of Kusama’s life in the new graphic novel Kusama: Polka Dot Queen, just released from SelfMadeHero books and available now here at Amazon. Working in multiple media, including performance art, she rubbed elbows with artists Americans will be more familiar with, including Georgia O’Keefe, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. Yet modern art enthusiasts have called Kusama the most important living artist from Japan, the world’s top-selling woman artist, and the world’s most successful living artist.
Roughly half of the graphic novel explores the impact of Kusama’s parents on her adult life. Elliott’s narrative suggests that her mental illness and the use of sexuality in her art were possibly a result of a mother that did not approve of her, a culture that forced her parents together, and a father who cheated on her mother.
Polka dots, mirrors, and expressions of infinity all would become a part of her visual depictions of life and circumstance. Elliott ties all of this back to her early development.
Kusama would slowly break away from her family, first by making her way to studying at Kyoto City University of Arts before moving to New York City where she became recognized for her vision in the 1950s. Soon she was part of the pop art movement, New York’s avant garde stylings, and hippie counterculture. Her performance art “happenings” stretched the boundaries of art with their incorporation of sex. Ultimately Kusama credited art for her ability to live with mental illness. Her life also reflects her confrontations with sexism, patriarchy, and racism.
Her title of “Polka Dot Queen” comes from her incorporation of the elements into her work. This graphic novel is only an introduction to her life. Unfortunately the medium doesn’t allow the reader to see her actual artwork, especially the polka dot images for which she has become most famous. That’s likely from copyright costs from reproducing those images. Yet this book can serve as a springboard to other books for anyone wanting to learn more about the artist.
Here is a look inside Kusama: Polka Dot Queen:
Simon Elliott’s Kusama: Polka Dot Queen is now available from SelfMadeHero books, available now here at Amazon.
