Kusama is the ‘international avant-garde artist’ for whom selling out makes the point: we all want some self-obliteration

In 2012, Yayoi Kusama’s face, form and tentacles beset Louis Vuitton stores all over the world. A giant Kusama doll appeared above the clock at Selfridges. and armies of her likeness appeared in windows in London and throughout Europe, alongside handbags and scarfs overwhelmed with polka dots and protrusions. Since then, Kusama has collaborated again with Vuitton (including a revisiting of the 2012 collaboration in 2023), to create products themed by her image and work.

While these projects have expanded her popular and global success, Kusama’s work continues to be either overlooked or criticised by art commentators and scholars who characterise it as either simple and crass — primarily a commercial (but not artistic) success — or the private expression of mental illness made public and popular. However, this dismissal overlooks the point of the commodification of her work. Captured in Kusama’s insistent commercial and personal branding is a transgressive message revealed in the surface of luxury goods and blockbuster exhibitions.