WORK IS BASED ON ARTIST’S PYSCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
charts Kusama’s unlikely career, from her early work in her hometown of Matsumoto, through her days in the 1960s New York City art scene, when her work was displayed alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, through her years of obscurity and her more recent resurgence and worldwide fame. Kusama started her obsession with dots in her artwork at age 10, and first began exploring the concept of infinity in a 1958 painting of the Pacific Ocean.
“My work is based on developing my psychological problems into art,” Kusama says in the documentary, and she’s been a resident of a Tokyo mental institution since 1977. That arrangement, with her art studio nearby, has given her the stability she needs to create, and her openness about her struggles with mental illness, and how it’s reflected in her work, is both inspirational and moving.
At nearly 90, Kusama is still working diligently, with a wider audience than ever before.
“Now that my life is in the last phase, I am putting all of my energy into my art,” she says in “Infinity.” “I hope that the power of art can make the world more peaceful.”
Now anyone in Vegas can experience a bit of that beauty and peace, 45 seconds at a time.
Bellagio, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. daily, last admission at 7:30 p.m., $14, $12 seniors, students and Nevada residents, children 12 and under free, admission includes audio tour. 702-693-7871.