Before the infinity nets, there was ‘The Pacific Ocean’ – what origin stories focusing on Yayoi Kusama’s mental illness miss about her art
Retrospectives on Yayoi Kusama often point to mental illness as the source of her inspiration. But before she made it big, she was a young girl inspired by traveling the world for the first time.
Yayoi Kusama’s iconic infinity net paintings and rooms often steal the spotlight when it comes to her life story, but her journey to becoming one of the world’s most famous artists began much earlier. In 1957, a year before she moved to New York and achieved overnight success, Kusama traveled across the Pacific Ocean to exhibit her work in the United States for the first time.
This pivotal moment, often overlooked in origin stories focusing on her mental illness and later fame, reveals a crucial first step in her artistic development.
Known for her distinctive polka-dotted pumpkins and infinity rooms, Kusama’s 1958 painting "The Pacific Ocean" offers a glimpse into her mental state during this transitional period. Unlike the bright colors and patterns that define her later work, this painting appears more chaotic, with red patterns reminiscent of fire rather than water. It captures the uncertainty of her flight across the Pacific, a boundary between her home in Japan and her future in the U.S.
In this painting, Kusama's swirling red waves evoke a sense of both sunrise and sunset, symbolizing the ambiguity of her uncertain future. The intense, glowing patterns on the canvas seem to hold a potential energy, as if she was on the verge of remaking herself. Before her departure, Kusama had burned many of her previous works, seeking to leave her past behind and embrace a new identity. This act of destruction was itself a transformational step, mirroring the chaotic yet hopeful energy captured in "The Pacific Ocean."
While her lifelong struggle with mental health undeniably influenced her art, early paintings like "Pacific Ocean" reveal other sources of inspiration. Beyond her childhood nightmares and hallucinations, the painting reflects her anxiety and awe in the face of the vast Pacific Ocean, and her uncertain future. By creating multiple versions of the painting, Kusama sought to capture the endless rhythm of the ocean, transcending the limitations of a single artwork.
This act of repetition underscores her lifelong quest to explore the concept of infinity, not just in her paintings but also in her personal journey.
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