Polka Dots, Pumpkins & Infinity Rooms - Celebrating Yayoi Kusama

Born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929,  Yayoi Kusama began drawing as a child, driven by vivid hallucinations that became the foundation of her art. Moving to New York in 1957, she became a pioneering figure of the 1960's avant-garde, spending the following decades building a distinctive universe of polka dots, pumpkins and infinite reflections. Though often overlooked early in her career, Kusama is now celebrated for creating some of the earliest immersive, mirrored environments in contemporary art - and for her surreal fixation on polka dots and pumpkins which extended beyond her art into a distinctive personal style of bold wigs, bright patterns and dotted outfits that became as iconic as her work.

Yayoi Kusama with Yellow Tree  Living Room at the Aichi Triennale, 2010

This autumn, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum opened the doors on a major Yayoi Kusama retrospective that, following the artist's death, has also become an unmissable posthumous celebration of one of the 20th and 21st centuries' most influential and innovative artists. Displayed across two floors, the exhibition spans seven decades, from her early works created in Japan - including some never previously exhibited in Europe - to pieces which define her global reputation. There are paintings and sculptures, fashion pieces, collages and her provocative public 'happenings' of the 1960's. And perhaps most exciting of all, there is also a brand-new version of her iconic installations where the boundary between the viewer and the work seems to disappear.

Installation view Yayoi Kusama, 2026, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo:
Peter Tijhuis © YAYOI KUSAMA

Thrilling and spirit-lifting, this is an exhibition not to be missed - which is why we have included tickets on our Winter Getaway to Amsterdam city break.