Yayoi Kusama at Museum Ludwig

Pumpkins bring about poetic peace in my mind.Pumpkins talk to me.Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Pumpkins, polka dots, infinity nets—all of Kusama’s trademarks can be found in Pumpkin (1991) above. They are the result of her working through the vivid hallucinations she has been suffering from since childhood. Turning to nature, to her dot and lattice structures, to her multifaceted art in general is Kusama’s way of coping with stress and trauma, of which she’s been having no shortage: The horrors of the Second World War and the atomic bombings of Japan; rejection of her art in Japan; intense years in New York City between flower power, anti-Vietnam War movements, and her own emancipation; the complicated relationship with her parents, but also the death of her parents; living in and working from a clinic in Tokyo. Kusama’s life and work almost spans a decade! No wonder that the exhibition at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig is massive, long sold out, and well on the way to becoming the most…