[Art] Kusama, Yayoi Mini-Archive of Early Promotional

[Art] Kusama, Yayoi Mini-Archive of Early Promotional Material

1. Printed Document
New York, ca. 1963-64. One sheet folded to make four pages, 11 x 8 1/2 in. (279 x 216 mm). Printed promotional document with newspaper reviews of Kusama's work, including excerpts from the New York Herald Tribune, Art News, the New York Post, Art Voices, The New York Times,and The World (Die Welt).

2. Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show
N(ew). Y(ork).: Gallery: Gertrude Stein, December 17-January 11, (1963)-1964. Offset photo-lithographic exhibition poster. Condition: A, creasing from original folds. 17 x 22 1/2 in. (432 x 571 mm). Includes original printed mailing envelope.

“Kusama's first room-sized installation consists of a rowboat filled with white protrusions in a room whose walls are covered with black-and-white reproductions of the boat sculpture. The anteroom is darkened to maximize the dramatic effect. Critic Brian O'Doherty described the installation: "[A]round the spotlit boat, the aggregation of single images again papering the walls comes back at one like a series of telescoped echoes." He feels it necessary to caution viewers: "This genuine, obscurely poetic event should not be dismissed as a surrealist caper. Kusama has produced an object and an environment that are weirdly moving" (Brian O'Doherty, untitled review, The New York Times, 29 December 1963).” (Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968, Lynn Zelevansky, Laura Hoptman, Akira Tatehata, Alexandra Munroe, New York 1998, p. 174).

3. Driving Image Show...
N(ew). Y(ork).: Gallery: Gertrude Stein, March 31-April 25, 1964. Offset photo-lithographic exhibition poster. Condition: A, light edge-wear. 17 x 22 1/2 in. (432 x 571 mm).

From the Castellane Gallery (New York) iteration of the show: "Infinity Net paintings, the protuberance covered rowboat from Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963), and phallic furniture, including a chair, sofa, table, and dresser, are arranged in an installation that fills the gallery. Additionally, two dresses and several mannequins covered with dried macaroni are shown; pasta is also strewn about the floor. Cut paper leaves cover a painted table by the door..." (Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, p. 174).

4. Read, Sir Herbert
Printed Document
No place, March 13, 1964. Printed document of a statement by art historian Sir Herbert Read, describing his encounter with Kusama's work. Includes another copy of same. 11 x 8 1/2 in. (279 x 216 mm).

5. Kusama, Tea-Dancers, mighty thunder, Bill Andrews, Dove, Tyra, And All The Rest
(New York): The Electric Circus, (1967). Offset-lithographic flyer announcing Kusama's happening. Lightly creased; minor soiling. 8 1/2 x 11 in. (216 x 279 mm).

6. Self-Obliteration: An Audio-Visual-Light Performance
(New York, 1967). Offset lithographic flyer, printed on yellow paper, announcing Kusama's first performace of Self-Obliteration, at the Black Gate Theater, from June 16-18. Includes a typed program from the Black Gate performance describing Kusama's work and her Self-Obliteration performance; sketch in blue pen on verso, presumably of the objects from this performance. 11 x 8 1/2 in. (279 x 216 mm).

“This is the first in a two-year series of public happenings, some of them staged at her own studio, which Kusama will call Body Festivals. A press release announces that 'during the course of the happening Kusama will obliterate her environment, live bikini models and herself. All will be asked to wear polka dots for a polka dot dance party' (press release for Self-Obliteration, June 1967). She calls the environment Love Room; it contains mannequins and walls covered with polka dots that glow under black light. As part of the performance the audience paints polka dots on each other with fluorescent paint. In a subsequent Body Festival Kusama distributes paddles with balls dipped in fluorescent paint to attendees. In the darkness the theater is filled with luminescent balls darting through the air (Laura Hoptman and Lynn Zelevansky, interview with Yayoi Kusama, 10 May 1997). Live music is provided by Joe Jones and the Tone Deafs. In press releases and posters generated for these events Kusama lists herself as director of the Happening Poster Corporation.” (Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, p. 181).

7. Body-Festival...
New York: Director Happening Poster Corp., 1967. Offset lithographic flyer announcing Kusama's happening Body-Festival in Washington Square Park, New York. Includes another copy of same, creased from original folds. 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (209 x 267 mm).

"Kusama stages Body Festivals in Tompkins Square Park and Washington Square Park, New York. Kusama and Japanese artist Minoru Araki paint polka dots on paper and on willing participants on weekend afternoons. Kusama prints flyers and sends out press releases to publicize the happenings. The flyers are covered with polka dots...They also contain slogans such as 'Please the Body' (6 August), '50% is Illusion and 50% is Reality' (13 August), and 'Learn, Unlearn, Relearn' (20 August)." (Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, p. 181).

8. Group of 2 Printed Exhibition Documents
Woodstock, New York, (ca. 1967). Two sheets, 11 x 8 1/2 in. (279 x 216 mm). Printed exhibition document for Kusama's Horse Play and Self Obliteration performances at Group 212 in Woodstock, New York, on July 4 and July 9, ca. 1967. Includes a printed exhibition history of Kusama's group and one-man shows up to 1966.

9. Kusama's self obliteration!
(New York), 1968. Offset lithographic flyer, printed on black paper, announcing Kusama and Jud Yalkut's film Self Obliteration, and two-night screening at the Gymnasium, New York. Includes another copy of same. 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (209 x 267 mm).

From January to February Kusama held multiple screenings of this film, which recorded her various happenings from around New York the previous year. It would go on to win numerous awards.

10. Yayoi Kusama Self Obliteration
New York, Jan(uary) 21, (19)68. Offset lithographic flyer, printed on yellow paper with her signature polka-dot design, announcing Kusama and Jud Yalkut's film Self Obliteration, and screening at the Palm Gardens, New York. Creased from original fold. 14 x 8 1/2 in. (356 x 216 mm).