Yayoi Kusama is back and has once again graced the Washington, DC area with a mesmerizing collection. One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection is now open at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden! One with Eternity will be on view until November 27th, 2022.
The text featured in this post is credited to the Hirshhorn Museum website to ensure accuracy.
About the Exhibition
Building on the Hirshhorn’s blockbuster 2017 exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, this new exhibition affirms Kusama’s legacy within the Museum’s collection and art history with three significant new acquisitions.
One with Eternity will showcase the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection of works by Kusama, including two of her Infinity Mirror Rooms—her first and one of her most recent—that create a dazzling sensation of never-ending space. These transcendent rooms will be exhibited alongside an early painting; sculptures, including Pumpkin (2016) and Flowers—Overcoat (1964); and photographs of the artist. This exhibition honors Kusama’s distinctive vision of self-obliteration by exploring its development across media while also underscoring the Museum’s mission: to present the most exciting art and ideas of our time.
Among the additions to the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection is Kusama’s milestone, Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field (Floor Show) (1965/2017), the first of the artist’s immersive installations to transform the intense repetition of her earlier paintings and works on paper into a perceptual and participatory experience. The exhibition will also debut one of Kusama’s most recent rooms.
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A word from the museum on how to experience the exhibition
This petite exhibition explores the artist’s legacy and career through the lens of five of her artworks in the Hirshhorn’s collection. Owing to the nature of the artwork, free Timed Passes are required to experience One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection
Same-day Timed Passes: Every visitor ages 12 and up is required to have a free Timed Pass to enter for this experience, as gallery capacity is limited. Throughout the eight-month exhibition, free same-day Timed Passes will be distributed at the Museum Thursdays–Sundays beginning at 9:30 am on a first-come, first-served basis until all the day’s passes have been claimed. Each person over the age of 12 may claim up to two passes, based on availability.
Hirshhorn Insider Member Passes: As one benefit of their museum membership, Hirshhorn Insider members are invited to plan ahead online by choosing an available date between April 1 and November 27. Members enjoy two or more one-time timed passes to One with Eternity based on their membership level.
Click here to learn more about timed passes, becoming an Insider, and museum guidelines.
About the Artist
Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Nagano, in 1929. Today, she continues to produce paintings at her studio in Tokyo. She studied traditional Nihonga (Japanese-style) painting in Kyoto and moved to New York City in 1958. There, she was active in avant-garde circles during the formative years of pop art and minimalism, exhibiting her work alongside such artists as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Allan Kaprow—figures who have cited Kusama as influential to the development of assemblage, environmental art, and performative practices.
Kusama exhibited widely in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands in the mid-’60s, participating in exhibitions with artists associated with Nul, ZERO, and the New Tendency in Europe, where she began developing her interest in the optics and interactive elements of mirrors, electric lights, sound, and kinetics. The artist’s fame grew in the late 1960s through her radical antiwar happenings, which espoused nudity and polka dots in the streets of New York. Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, where she has since resided. In recent years, Kusama has achieved tremendous critical respect as well as celebrity status.
A MESSAGE FROM YAYOI KUSAMA TO THE WHOLE WORLD
Though it glistens just out of reach, I continue to pray for hope to shine through
Its glimmer lighting our way
This long awaited great cosmic glow
Now that we find ourselves on the dark side of the world
The gods will be there to strengthen the hope we have spread throughout the universe
For those left behind, each person’s story and that of their loved ones
It is time to seek a hymn of love for our souls
In the midst of this historic menace, a brief burst of light points to the future
Let us joyfully sing this song of a splendid future
Let’s go
Embraced in deep love and the efforts of people all over the world
Now is the time to overcome, to bring peace
We gathered for love and I hope to fulfil that desire
The time has come to fight and overcome our unhappiness
To COVID-19 that stands in our way
I say Disappear from this earth
We shall fight
We shall fight this terrible monster
Now is the time for people all over the world to stand up
My deep gratitude goes to all those who are already fighting.
Revolutionist of the world by the Art
From Yayoi Kusama ❤️
One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection is organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and has been made possible with generous support from La Grande Dame by Veuve Clicquot.
Principle Gallery 