Yayoi Kusama polka-dot piano ready for public use at Tokyo government building, with view to die for
Tokyoites looking for a great place to play their favorite Mozart piece take note: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has set up a grand piano for visitors to the 45th floor of its No. 1 building in Shinjuku Ward, giving people of all skill levels ...
Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami consider legal action against fake exhibitions in China
Exhibitions of works passed off as those by renowned Japanese artists Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami have been held in China recently, and the two artists are considering legal action to seek criminal charges, their lawyers have said. According to Yoshifumi Onodera, Kusama's lawyer, such ...
Yayoi Kusama in Jakarta: She'll be your mirror
"Life is the Heart of a Rainbow," the Yayoi Kusama exhibition now on at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jakarta, is the first retrospective of the artist Indonesia has ever hosted.
Buy what you like, sell what the market fancies: Top collectors reveal how to make a fortune in art
Andy Warhol once said: "Making money is art." But what about making money from art? A boom in the global market has delivered some eye-popping returns in the past few years, drawing new collectors keen to invest in an asset class that offers cultural as ...
The best pick and mix of modern art
The current exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art could be considered a retrospective of Toshio Hara's career as a collector. Surprisingly, given that the museum was founded in 1979, it's the first time that the director and president has personally curated a ...
It has been a year of new museums, galleries and inventive renovations
From polka-dot emporiums and oceanfront observatories to a new-generation castle museum, a raft of eclectic new cultural spaces have been showcased over the past year across Japan. Here are a few highlights that have either opened or been renovated across the country in recent ...
Bohemia along the Sumida: In search of cultural capital
On paper, the Japanese government supports the arts, which are considered important vehicles for promoting Japanese culture globally, enhancing the country's image as a tourist destination and stimulating declining regional economies. But, where does the content for Japan's increasing number of art festivals actually ...
Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots and pumpkins exhibit a hot ticket in LA
Outside The Broad contemporary museum in downtown Los Angeles, a line of people stretched down an entire block, nearly a week after the sold-out "Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors" exhibition opened on Oct. 21. Each day the museum sells a limited number of same-day standby tickets, ...
Beset by visions, artist Yayoi Kusama has no intention of slowing down
Avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work commands some of the highest prices of any living female artist, said on Tuesday that at age 88, she still fills her days painting and has no intention of slowing down. Long known for her obsessive, dot-covered art and ...
Famed artist Yayoi Kusama to open her own Tokyo museum
Yayoi Kusama, avant-garde artist world-renowned for her obsessive polka dot and net paintings, is opening a museum in the center of Tokyo this fall, the new museum said on its website. The planned five-story museum will open Oct. 1 in Shinjuku Ward where it will ...
Japan's museums relaxing no-photos policy in keeping with smartphone realities
A growing number of museums in the country are looking to abandon their no-photos policy amid the rising popularity of smartphones and calls to conform to more liberal global practices. While many famous museums overseas allow visitors to take photos, museums in Japan have long ...
Kusama and her infinite appeal
Yayoi Kusama's work has a direct and immediate visual impact. Her obsessions with dots, pumpkins and floppy phalluses have become big crowd pleasers after a spotty career of avant-garde agitation and mental-health issues. The auction house Christie's says she is "now the highest-selling living ...
