The Infinite Yayoi Kusama (re-release)

The international avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama has passed away at 97, but her work and extraordinary legacy will remain for posterity. As our own small remembrance, we revisit a 2025 episode exploring her unmatched influence, in which art historian Jennifer DeVere Brody, art critic Johanna Fateman, and curator Catherine Taft unpack the many versions of Yayoi Kusama—and her singular importance in 20th and 21st century art.

A global travelling retrospective devoted to over seven decades of Kusama’s work will open at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam on September 11.  It was previously on view at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.

Jennifer DeVere Brody is Professor of Theater & Performance studies, and, by courtesy, African & African American Studies at Stanford University. A Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts Research supported her forthcoming book, Moving Stones: About the Art of Edmonia Lewis (Duke UPress, 2026). 

Johanna Fateman is a writer, co-chief art critic at Cultured Mag, and a member of the band Le Tigre. 

Catherine Taft is a writer and curator and deputy director of The Brick, a non-profit exhibition space in Los Angeles.