Mirror Room Yayoi Kusama

In 2010 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen purchased the work ‘Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli’s Field’ by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is presenting the work permanently in the entrance area. With dots and infinite reflections, the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama plays with our visual perception.

This work, the first of Kusama’s (Matsumoto, 1929) mirror rooms, was exhibited at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the autumn of 2008 as part of her solo exhibition 'Mirrored Years'. Her enormous installations with her characteristic dots and mirrors are at the root of an increasingly rich tradition of environments in contemporary art.

International furore

Kusama created an international furore with her spatial installations, which were among the first in a long tradition of ‘environments’ in contemporary art. Her work was especially well received in the Netherlands: in the 1960s, her work was shown here more frequently than anywhere else in the world. Kusama’s work has had a huge influence on several generations of contemporary artists.

My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings. - Yayoi Kusama

Permanently on display

The museum purchased ‘Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field’ in 2010, partly thanks to a generous gesture by the artist herself and with support from the Willem van Rede Fund and the Mondriaan Fund. The work is on permanent display in the museum’s entrance area.