Even after speaking to the Deputy Director for Curatorial & Collections Development at the National Gallery Singapore, Russell Storer, and its Curator Dr Adele Tan we were still transfixed on the wonder that is Yayoi Kusama. Digging a little deeper online, here are eight more extraordinary facts about the Queen of Polka dots.
01 Yayoi Kusama is trained in Nihonga painting, a modern Japanese painting style
Her parents, traditional Japanese farm merchants, forbade her to pursue painting as a career and wanted her to be a housewife. Kusama refused, went to Kyoto and studied the Nihonga painting style. She found the rules and structures in the art style formal and restrictive, eventually dropping out to seek greener pastures in New York.
