Yayoi Kusama: with love from Holland by tijs visser

K U S A M A with love from holland

An inventory of projects, exhibitions, and happenings in the Low Countries and beyond between 1960 and 1970

Arriving at the Internationale Galerij Orez in The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

YAYOI KUSAMA

An inventory of projects, exhibitions, and happenings in the Low Countries and beyond between 1960 and 1970

Editor Tijs Visser Contributors Antje von Graevenitz Jaap Guldemond

Margriet Schavemaker Harrie Verstappen Tijs Visser

Caroline de Westenholz Midori Yamamura

1960–1965

1965–1970

1967–1970

Documentation

Brief History

Orez Gallery

Happenings

Photographers Page 140–165

Zero / Orez / Nul

Europe

Naked Happening

Page 8–12

Page 64–67

Page 110–117

Arnhem

Eroticism

Newspapers

Page 13–15

Page 68–71

Page 118–125

Amsterdam

Zero on Sea

Dutch Dots

Page 16–18

Page 72–87

Page 126–131

The Hague

Love Room

Fashion

Page 19

Page 88–91

Page 132–137

Amsterdam

Art Fair

Page 19–29

Page 92–95

Broadcastings Page 166–173

About Kusama Gordon Brown Page 174–177

Yayoi Kusama

Happenings Page 138–139

Kusama & Peeters

After 1967

Page 30–33

Page 98–99

Correspondence

Caged Paintings

Page 34–43

Page 100–101

Exhibitions Page 102–109

Friends Henk Peeters Page 50–52

Lucio Fontana Page 53

Otto Piene Page 54

Christian Megert Page 54

Ferdinand Spindel Page 54

Frits Becht Page 55

Jan Schoonhoven Page 55

Exhibitions Page 56–63

Page 182–183

Harrie Verstappen Frits Becht

Page 44–49

Henk Peeters

Page 96–97

Nul works

Collaborations

Page 178–181

Page 184–189

Essay Infinity Nets and Self-Obliteration Page 190–207

Index Page 208–209

ZONE OF PURE POSSIBILITIES Tijs Visser

*The 0-INSTITUTE has set itself the task of researching, preserving and presenting the works and documents of, among others, the Dutch artists associated with the international post-war ZERO movement. As a center of scientific research, the institute conducts field research in archives, artists’ studios, public and private collections and collaborates with a network of prominent writers, and researchers.

Yayoi Kusama is undoubtedly one of the most important post-war and contemporary artists of the moment, with exhibitions all over the world. Her work is not only of historical importance, but also appeals to a broad international audience. It defies almost all art concepts, from Minimal Art to Pop Art to Happenings. Her work from the sixties, when she was working in New York, is regularly shown in exhibitions around the world. Little known until now, however, is that much of her work originated in the Netherlands, and was exhibited there, more often than in New York. In the aftermath of the Second World War, a group of young German and Dutch artists decided to leave the past behind and create a new artistic beginning. Starting with Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, they chose the name “Zero” in 1958 in Germany, just as Piero Manzoni and Jan Schoonhoven did in the Netherlands in the same year. They were followed by Henk Peeters and Armando, who went by the name “Nul,” the Dutch word for zero in 1961. In just five short years, they and their European network created an avant-garde movement that had a strong influence and continues to inspire contemporary artists today. Kusama's work has been shown in many contexts, but up to now, it was not clear—neither in the US, the Netherlands, nor Japan—that she was an important figure for European ZERO artists. The ZERO artists responded to post-war abstract expressionism, with its dark colors, subjectivity and emotion. In the words of Piene, ZERO could instead be a “zone of silence and pure possibilities.” Their interests included fast cars and space travel; one Europe and one universe; science and mechanics; new industrial materials; complex networks; media and art’s place outside the walls of the museum. Both Kusama and the ZERO artists explored the monochrome with traditional means, such as canvas and paint, but the real challenge was to investigate and influence visitor behavior with spatial installations. While the ZERO artists sought to produce art that referred to nothing other than the work itself, Kusama used her body of work to explore the limits of art. Kusama is among the world’s most talented and influential artists, but not only because of her paintings and installations. From the day she arrived in New York in 1957, she immediately managed to exhibit her work together with the most important artists of the day, and no other artist has conceived, prepared and documented his or her career in such detail. The Kusama archive in Tokyo elucidates how she became so successful so early on. From the outset she sent letters all around the world, soliciting interest for an exhibition of her work. She has worked in a wide range of media, from paintings to fashion. She popped-up with provocative happenings in the streets and arty clubs. She entrusted

photographers with capturing her “life.” She also collected every single article that appeared about her in the media and was prepared to write her own history! That fact that she met “influential” artists who fell for this “little Japanese monkey” and that she left her sexual orientation open, while eagerly using her “illness” and time spent in a mental hospital also undoubtedly contributed to her becoming one of the world’s most influential female artists. Since 2005, the 0-INSTITUTE* has collected archive material with a team of art historians and conducted interviews with eyewitnesses, including artists, friends, and organizers. This publication presents the result of the preliminary research, which began in 2018, in preparation for the Yayoi Kusama retrospective exhibition at the Gropius Bau in Berlin in 2021. However, during this research, it became clear how important Kusama's stay in the Netherlands was for her development. The accumulated knowledge retained in this publication is the basis for the development of the exhibition Kusama: with love from Holland in the Stedelijk Museum of Schiedam, and does not punctuate the "mystery" of Kusama but provides many new facts of Kusama's early activities in Europe. Starting in Germany, finding a base in Holland, moving to Italy, and back to Germany; with a bit of help from her friends. I owe my greatest debt to Yayoi Kusama and my uncle Henk Peeters, who has always supported me in my research and advised me to really travel to Japan. Despite my not meeting Kusama, I thank Kusama for giving me access to the many archive documents with letters, photos and newspaper articles from the Netherlands. A special thanks goes to Etsuko Sakurai at the Kusama archive for her valuable additional and corrective comments. And of course Caroline de Westenholz, who helped me to realize this publication, not only financially, but also with her own research into Kusama and the Orez Gallery.

1960–1965

1960 1961

1962

1963 1964

1965

Leverkusen, Städtisches Museum Wolframs-Eschenbach, DeutschordensSchloss Trier, Städtisches Museum The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Arnhem, Galerie A Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Leiden, Akademisch Kunst-centrum Antwerp, Galerie Dorekens Antwerp, Galerie Dorekens Rotterdam, Kunstcentrum 't Venster Amsterdam, Galerie Amstel 47 Rotterdam, Galerie Delta Velp, Jeugdfestival Amsterdam, Galerie Amstel 47 Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art Washington, Washington Gallery of Modern Art Bern, Galerie Aktuell Amsterdam, Galerij De Bezige Bij The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum

Underlined = solo 9

A BRIEF HISTORY from Zero to Orez Tijs Visser*

*Tijs Visser is founding director of the ZERO foundation in Düsseldorf, and founding director of the 0-INSTITUTE. The traveling ZERO exhibition, made in cooperation with the Guggenheim New York, Martin Gropius-Bau Berlin, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2015-2016), was his initiative. Visser organizes events and symposia, mainly on themes related to the ZERO idea, and edits and publishes regularly standard works on the international ZERO art movement. He has taken the initiative to build a ZERO house in Düsseldorf as a global center to study the ideas from ZERO.

Historically, ZERO was a European movement that manifested itself in several nations: Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy between 1958 and 1966. Affiliations were loose, ZERO was not a “group” with unified stylistic features or explicit aims set out in a manifesto.1 In some cases, changing groups with the same name and artists regularly joined the movement, presenting its shared artistic philosophy in collaborative exhibitions and publications. Yayoi Kusama was never a “member” of any of those groups, but was regularly invited to participate in ZERO exhibitions, and affiliated galleries.2

Zero (Düsseldorf)

Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom, collection 0archive

The German artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene were looking for a new beginning, a “zero hour” that should not be burdened by the past. They set the goal to take down artistic and geographical boundaries. The aim was to achieve a symbiosis of nature, art and technology, and spatial expansion. Since 1957, they organized a series of thematic “evening” exhibitions in their shared studio. For the 7th evening exhibition in 1958, on the theme of “Red,” including twenty “informal” artists, Mack and Piene published a small magazine with the title ZERO1. The publication, with an article by Yves Klein on the monochrome, was the first to announce their vision on a possible new way of making art, with a reduction of the figurative, and the purest concentration on the clarity of colour and the dynamic light oscillation in space. In 1961, Mack and Piene organized a large event to launch their third publication, ZERO3, around the theme of “Dynamo.” This time, there were many contributions from international artists, including Daniel Spoerri, Emmet Williams, and again Yves Klein, in various languages. As their network spread fast, many artists and journalists traveled to Düsseldorf, one of Europe’s upcoming centers for the visual arts, to attend the ZERO event, filmed for television.3 It was the beginning of the internationalization of ZERO, both in the museum and commercial art world. From now on, ZERO became an international Avantgarde, with Piene and Mack as German “representatives” of the “movement.”4 However, Yayoi Kusama was not included in any of these exhibitions or publications. In hindsight, her first white “Net paintings,” shown at the Dusanne Gallery in Seattle, would have fit within the context of practically all the ZERO publications.

Zero-Kai/Gutai (Osaka)

Jiro Yoshihara, Ashiya, around 1965. Photo Gutai Art Association

A few years earlier, in 1952, the local experimental and confidential artist group Zero-Kai (Kai means group) was founded near Osaka. The principal members were Saburo Murakami, Kazuo Shiraga, and Akira Kanayama.5 The group was short-lived after artist Shozo Shimamoto asked the Zero-Kai members to join the Gutai group, founded by Jiro Yoshihara in 1954. The group organized one-day open-air exhibitions and regularly published journals from 1955 on, first in Japanese, later in English. The group consisted of about ten members in the fifties, and grew to a total of thirty in the seventies.6 Gutai sought to challenge the imagination and raise new ideas about what art is, paying attention to the relationships between body, matter, time and space, thereby stimulating freedom of expression. Gutai also stood for an exchange between nations, and believed in a worldwide collaboration to create a new art environment.7 Gutai quickly gained recognition from its events and magazines, drawing

the attention of artists and galleries worldwide. Their publications were sent to artists around the world; Yves Klein owned several, Jackson Pollock, Allan Kaprov, Lucio Fontana, Henk Peeters, and like-minded artists, who were looking for new possibilities of expression and using performative actions. In a short time, the group opened the Gutai Pinacotheca, a kind of “Kunsthalle,” where foreign artists also had their solo presentations or participated in large events. Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, George Mathieu, and collectors like Peggy Guggenheim found their way to Osaka, the “origin of the happening.”8 Yayoi Kusama, living in Japan until 1957, had several solo exhibitions in Tokyo. As there was hardly any contact between the artists from the Tokyo region and that of Gutai in the Kansai region, Kusama never met or was invited by Gutai. Gutai artists also organized happenings, made white monochromes and installations with mirrors. Kusama didn't meet with Jiro Yoshihara until 1965 at the Nul exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. A new pan-European avant-garde network of informal artist groups soon spread from Düsseldorf to Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Milan.

Zero/Orez (Rotterdam) The same year that the first ZERO magazine was published in Düsseldorf, “another” Zero group was founded in Rotterdam by collector and “producer” Hans Sonnenberg. The group consisted of, among others, Gust Romijn, Jan Schoonhoven, and Piero Manzoni, and exhibited in Rotterdam, Rome, and Antwerp. According to an idea by Jan Schoonhoven, after a debate between Sonnenberg and Heinz Mack about the use of the name Zero, the group was renamed Orez (zero reversed). Although Piero Manzoni chose to join the German Zero “group,” he remained loyal to Sonnenberg and the Orez group, which had its gallery space in The Hague; the Internationale Galerij Orez. The group, however, had a short lifespan but was never officially dissolved, and the artists all continued to work very faithfully with the gallery. Yayoi Kusama only arrived in Holland in 1965, but the Orez Gallery already exhibited her work in 1962, thanks to Henk Peeters, founder of the Dutch Nul group. Sonnenberg and his successors Hans Verhagen, Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, built a strong bond with Kusama and promoted her work in Europe from 1965 until 1970. Cover of the Zero groups publications, 1958, collection 0-archive

Carl Laszlo (left), Piero Manzoni (second left), Enrico Castellani (right), Galleria Azimut, Milan, 1960

Azimuth (Milan) In 1959, Piero Manzoni, together with Enrico Castellani, started the Azimuth gallery in Milan, and published an international art magazine under the same name. Besides their own work, the gallery also showed their international “ZERO” colleagues, including Francois Morellet and Heinz Mack. Lucio Fontana, while not an Azimuth member, was an important supporter of their ideas and activities, and engaged in the various networks of Gutai, Zero, and Nul. By placing the world on a pedestal, Socle du Monde (1962), Piero Manzoni declared not only the world as a work of art but also humanity, elevating life to art. On the other hand, every work Manzoni created, according to Henk Peeters, was a possible “last work,” with the aim of eliminating the arts.9 As such, Manzoni was not a networker, as Henk Peeters was; he showed no interest in other artists.10 The signing of naked women, canning artist’s shit, and selling the artist’s breath led to a break, in 1962, with the more serious and optimistic artists, in-

cluding Otto Piene and Heinz Mack. Henk Peeters, not devoid of irony, had himself signed by Manzoni and regularly declared, until his death, that he was a real work of art (by Manzoni). Azimuth was only active until 1962, the year that Piero Manzoni died. Thanks to Fontana, who had seen Kusama’s work in 1960 at the exhibition Monochrome Malerei in Leverkusen, Kusama could exhibit in Italy. Her happening in 1967 in the garden of the Venice Biennale, where she was selling industrially produced mirror balls for a dollar, could easily be seen as a continuation of Manzoni and his concepts. As a matter of fact, Kusama once owned an Achrome by Manzoni, but certainly felt a stronger connection with his more provocative actions.11 Jan Henderikse, Jan Schoonhoven, Armando, Henk Peeters, Städtisches Museum, Trier, 1961. Photo by Hermann Bartels, collection 0-archive

Nul (Arnhem) In 1961, Henk Peeters, together with Armando and Jan Schoonhoven, started the Dutch Nul group (nul meaning zero in Dutch). But even before the Nul group was founded, Peeters was internationally active, traveling to openings, meeting artists, bringing them in contact with collectors, museum directors, and organizing exhibitions.12 Peeters built a strong bond between the various artist groups and showed many single group activities in an international context. With his Nul exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1962/65), Peeters wanted to reach a new audience, connect with the industries, and turn the museum into a place for experiments. Thanks to his contacts, many artists met for the first time with like-minded artists from all around the world, like Kusama, Jesús Rafael Soto, George Rickey, and Jiro Yoshihara. And so Kusama was invited by artists such as Otto Piene and Lucio Fontana, museum directors such as Pontus Hulten, Harold Szeemann, and gallerists Iris Clert and Leo Verboon. The Nul group intended to show the “real” life, with cheap industrial materials, such as artificial cotton, nylon or rubber, bought from local warehouses, installed without the artist’s interference. Peeters and Armando, in particular, created works that had to be touched, smelled, or experienced by the public. The burgeoning movement of female liberation motivated Peeters to make soft, erotic, female objects with a high degree of cuddliness, and Kusama was a welcome inspiration for Peeters...

Henk Peeters, Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, Ad Petersen, Monica and Alfred Schmela, Düsseldorf, 1965. Photo by Jon Naar, collection 0-archive

Leverkusen – Arnhem The Nul group’s orientation is closely related to the early endeavours of Udo Kultermann in Leverkusen, Willem Sandberg in Amsterdam, and the various artists’ initiatives in Düsseldorf (Zero), Antwerp (G58)13, and Milan (Azimuth). Udo Kultermann’s exhibition Monochrome Malerei (Monochrome Painting) in Leverkusen (1960) and Avantgarde 61 in Trier (1961) led to an intensifying of contacts, based on a shared distaine for the emotionally charged, painterly gesture. These exhibitions were eye-openers, not least for the participants themselves. For Henk Peeters, however, Monochrome Malerei was also the inspiration for a new direction as artist-curator. Peeters traveled to Leverkusen shortly after the exhibition was over and saw many of the works in storage. The exhibition introduced Kusama’s work to Europe and brought together, for the first time, a diverse group of international artists and artists’ groups around their common interest in the monochrome. A few weeks later, Peeters informed its organizer, Udo Kultermann, that he would like to bring the exhibition to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.14 In June 1961, Peeters wrote to New York Gallery Stephen Radich and asked about its advertisement in the art magazine Cimaise: “I should [sic] like to

ZERO Demonstration, Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, 1961, with Henk Peeters (right). Photo by Manfred Tischer, collection 0-archive

know more about Yayoi Kusama.”15 Peeters decided to invite the artists—including Kusama—who had previously taken part in Avantgarde 61 at the Städtisches Museum in Trier. Peeters realized that affinities existed in this circle of artists.16 Kusama wrote back to him directly: In receipt of your letter sent to the gallery, I am pleased to find out that you are interested in my paintings.17 In a conversation with Niels van Maanen, Peeters said that he felt a relationship between her work and his: “In the sense that she turned against the signature. You had CoBrA painters, but we were against those tendencies. We were against composing and against dividing the canvas. She didn’t do that either; she just painted until it was full.”18 Peeters, moreover, shared with Kusama his interest in Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, who participated with Kusama in the Monochrome Malerei exhibition.19 That was the start of an occasionally intense correspondence between the two artists. In October Peeters wrote back: dear miss kusama, thank you for your adhesion to our nul exhibition, which will be organised next march. also with great interest i saw your photos and afterwards your paintings in wolframs – eschenbach, at last in trier. I can tell you that also my colleagues here and in germany were very agreed with it. after all the trier show is a very good one, the best till now. we are neighbours there; our paintings are hung together in the centre […]20 Peeters tried to involve Kusama in all his Nul-related activities: he invited her to join many exhibitions in the Netherlands and Europe, endeavoured to find galleries to exhibit Kusama, provided appropriate publicity, arranged countless shipments of her work to and within Europe, introduced her to potential patrons and much more besides. Kusama was very pleased with all this activity and attention and took full advantage of Peeters’ efforts.

ZERO Demonstration, Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, 1961. Photo by Paul Brandenburg, collection 0-archive

Expositie/Demonstratie ZERO (Exposition/Demonstration), Galerie A, Arnhem, 1961. Photo by Jan van Eldik, collection 0-archive

Arnhem – Amsterdam In the spring of 1961, Armando, Jan Henderikse, Yves Klein, and Henk Peeters met in Günther Uecker’s Düsseldorf studio to discuss further elaboration of the plans to make an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Thanks to these “conversations with colleagues,” as Peeters called them, a new concept for the exhibition emerged over the course of barely a year. Peeters’ role as liaison, organizer, and promoter of “the cause” was the foundation for the first Nul exhibition in Amsterdam in March 1962. For the presentation of the third issue of the ZERO magazine, which also featured work by Peeters and Jan Schoonhoven, Heinz mack and Otto Piene organized a large event in front of the Galerie Schmela in July 1961. Peeters attended the happening in Düsseldorf, and it inspired him to open Galerie A in Arnhem later that year and bring the Düsseldorf event to the Netherlands. EXHIBITION, DEMONSTRATION ZERO was the Netherlands’ first broad introduction to the international ZERO movement. Although several artists doubted the necessity to make it a significant event in Arnhem, Peeters persevered, hoping that the event would make the media and, thereby, publicize the planned exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. And Peeters managed to get works from more than forty artists, including Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, and Piero Manzoni. For the exhibition in Galerie A, Henk Peeters also had Yayoi Kusama on his list. The correspondence between Peeters and Kusama shows that he wanted to include her work in the opening exhibition, but a letter from January 1962, after the opening, reads: I was unable to send my work to you since I am kept very busy with my two one-man shows and two important museum shows here. I will try not to have this happening next time.21

Shortly before the opening, a press release was published announcing already the subsequent exhibition. Peeters was not only the initiator of the Nul exhibition for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, but also the organizer. He realized that he had to sell artworks to finance the show. Therefore, Peeters organized the “sales” exhibition, entitled Accrochage 1962. Kusama, eager to participate in Peeters’ initiatives, sent two photo collages. Shortly after the opening, Kusama wrote to Peeters: I am glad to know that the two paintings arrived safely.22 […] As I have written before, the two paintings which you are receiving now are meant for the present show at Gallery A, so I do wish you will hang them there.23 It is not clear whether those works arrived in time for the Accrochage. Still, Peeters made grateful use of the works and included them several times in his exhibitions, later selling them to cover the costs he incurred for the organization.

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, “Black water” installation by Armando. Photo by Oscar van Alphen

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, installation by Bernard Aubertin. Photo by Manfred Tischer

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, miror installation by Christian Megert. Photo by Manfred Tischer

Amsterdam – Antwerp Henk Peeters’ initial idea was to duplicate the exhibition Monochrome Malerei in its entirety. He indicated, however, in a letter to prospective participants that he also wanted to show “experiments in the domain of light and three-dimensional installations.”24 Moving swiftly, Peeters submitted his plans to Willem Sandberg in February 1961: by that time there was a provisional list of twentyeight participating “painters”—note the inverted commas—and Peeters envisaged the exhibition as “a week of international demonstrations in which something can happen daily.”25 In February 1962, Kusama selected the works No. P.3.B. and White X.X.X.A., exhibited at the New York Stephen Radich Gallery, to ship to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.26 Henk Peeters, together with Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker, Piero Manzoni, and Yves Klein, had chosen twenty-four artists, including eight German artists, six Italian artists, and only two French. Yves Klein declined to participate, as he could not identify himself with the ZERO label.27 Kusama was the only Japanese / American artist invited at the suggestion of Peeters.28 Most of the artists had developed their work specifically for the exhibition and used light to dematerialize their artworks. Piene remembered the words of Mark Rothko, visiting the Howard Wise Gallery in 1965, where Piene had installed his so-called “Light Ballet”; “I (Rothko, TV) could have been a ‘ZERO’ artist too.” Whereas Rothko (still) tried to paint the light, the artists from ZERO painted WITH light.29 Henk Peeters had carefully orchestrated the Nul exhibition: at the entry of the exhibition was a light and mirror installation by the Swiss Christian Megert, sponsored by lighting company Philips; an interactive “light ballet” by Mack, Piene, and Uecker; a black room by Armando; a reflecting ceiling by Peeters; and real fire by Bernard Aubertin. The works by Kusama were installed together with the plexiglass objects by Uli Pohl30. One must say; converting the traditional museum galleries into total environments was one of the most striking features. Although not perceived as such by the media, the exhibition was a first step, as Franz Roh wrote already in ZERO1, where “contemporary paintings would produce a view of reality that could spirituallly influence its spectator.” Although Kusama was not able to attend at the opening—she and Peeters could not afford to pay for her trip—she must have realized the importance of the exhibition from fellow artists and writers. Peeters wrote to Kusama: i am glad that you were content with the catalogue and the poster. the exhibition took in the short period of 16 days about 13,000 visitors, also a record in the history of the stedelijk museum. i cannot tell that the reactions were positive and it is quite understandable that we received more scandal than understanding people. [...] the exhibition was very clean and silent, without any shocking or expressive moment. […]31

Poster designed by Henk Peeters, collection 0-archive

Some of the participants were disappointed by this first museum presentation in the Netherlands: the plans had been grand and ground-breaking, but some had also been infeasible or too expensive. The Stedelijk Museum director “doesn’t feel so much in our way” wrote Peeters to Kusama32, and so the day after the show closed, the artists found their works piled up, unprotected, and in some cases damaged, in the corner of an exhibition room. In July, Yayoi Kusama wrote to Henk Peeters: I am worried about my paintings left in your museum since I fear the storage fees would be a great deal by now. I have been waiting for Mr. Kultermann, but I have not heard yet.33 However, all the exhibited works were in fact kept safely in storage at the museum, on behalf of Peeters, and then shipped to Antwerp, where the Dorekens gallery, initiated by Peeters, presented her first solo show in Europe in October 1962.34

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, with a red and a white Infinity Net painting. Photo by Oscar van Alphen

The Hague – Rotterdam – Amsterdam The Orez Gallery, led by poet and journalist Hans Sleutelaar from 1962, was quick to join forces with the international ZERO movement. In January 1962, the Orez Gallery organized Nieuwe tendenzen (New Tendencies), an ambitious exhibition featuring forty participants, including Kusama; twenty-three of which also participated in the Nul exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum a few months later. In December 1962, Hans Sonnenberg, the formal manager of the Zero/Orez group and director of the Orez Gallery, opened Galerie Delta in Rotterdam. Together with Henk Peeters, he organized a touring show titled mikro nul zero in 1964, with work by Kusama, the German Zero group, the Dutch Nul artists, the Italians, and under the banner “Nouveaux Realiste,” French and Dutch artists. Amsterdam – Europe On the occasion of the second Nul exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum, Henk Peeters and Armando presented the first issue of the publication de nieuwe stijl, in conjunction with a small exhibition in April 1965 in Amsterdam at the Galerij De Bezige Bij, in the presence of Kusama. The publication, with Yayoi Kusama standing amid her work on the cover, included her interview by Gordon Brown, texts by Yves Klein, Jan Schoonhoven, and many others. The publication was focused on “linguistic ready-mades,” found texts, without comment, in relation to work by the international ZERO artists.35

Magazine de nieuwe stijl, werk van de internationale avant-garde, 1965 Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, with a red Infinity Net painting, and a plexiglass by Uli Pohl, published in Televisier magazine

Although the artists were disappointed and the press very negative, and the exhibition was a financial debacle, Nul has since taken on mythic proportions. However, an appropriate adjustment to its perception is required, particularly regarding the role of director Willem Sandberg. Nul only happened because of an intensive lobbying36 effort and because the artists agreed to shoulder the costs themselves.37 Sandberg’s contribution was limited to making space available; he had no deep involvement in the ongoing developments around Nul or ZERO.38 There was hardly any hope for these artists to conquer the museum world with their art. Their aim was, however, the opposite. They wanted to lift the artistic and geographical boundaries: away from the museums, into the world, so the way they were treated by the museums was in fact of little consequence to them. Henk Peeters remembered a car ride with Mack and Megert: “On the way to Amsterdam to consult with Sandberg in 1960, bad weather on the highway inspired us, and the idea of a museum with environments arose, filled with drizzle, foam, and mounds of snow and ice. Sandberg was willing to listen, but ultimately he was a director of painters.”39 And yet, plans were soon made for a second Nul exhibition, which was supposed to take place at director Edy de Wilde’s Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in October 1963.40 At the beginning of that year, Peeters started inviting various artists to participate. However, as Eindhoven’s director Edy de Wilde suc-

Kusama in her studio with the poster from the Nul exhibition on the wall. Photo by Hall Reiff, collection 0archive

Henk Peeters, Rotraut Uecker-Klein, Emile Soestbergen, Günther Uecker, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by André Morain, collection 0-archive

ceeded Willem Sandberg in Amsterdam, the second large-scale Nul exhibition would not take place at the Stedelijk Museum until 1965. This time the Stedelijk Museum organized, paid for, and insured the transportation of the works to Amsterdam, took care of setting up the exhibition rooms, and published a two-part catalog. Again, most of the artists created works especially for the exhibition. Lucio Fontana created a room with bronze Naturas, lit by pink spotlights. Jiro Yoshihara, the leader of the Gutai group, reconstructed an environment based on objects made in the early fifties for an outdoor exhibition. The German artists again made a “light ballet,” based on light reflecting and turning objects, Hans Haacke set up a room with wind, water, and condensation objects. From Yves Klein, who died in 1962, and was not present with works in the first Nul show, Peeters had selected a group of large monochromes and an Anthropometry. Kusama was also asked to create an environment but wrote to Peeters: Since it is as I explained impossible for me to make the boat in Europe, I will pay part of the transportation of the boat if I cannot make an agreeable arrangement with the Holland- America Line.”41 The Stedelijk Museum agreed to pay for the transport costs, one way, from the USA to Europe. Kusama wrote to Edy de Wilde a month before the opening: I will arrange an environment for the boat consisting of 1500 posters of the boat on all four walls. I attach the posters to the wall with a staple gun.42

Nul65 exhibition catalog designed by Wim Crouwel and signed by several artists including Kusama, collection 0-archive

Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965, works by Yves Klein and Akira Kanayama. Photo by Ad Petersen, collection 0-archive

The first time that Kusama and Peeters met each other in the flesh was during the installation at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, 1965. In a short period, Peeters introduced Kusama to many artists, including Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven, the Swiss Christian Megert, the German Ferdinand Spindel, the Italian Lucio Fontana, and the German Otto Piene. As it was hard to communicate with Kusama, and because she had to be constantly busy, Henk Peeters asked her to make a work. In an interview with Niels van Maanen, Peeters said: “I had a blank canvas there (in the Stedelijk Museum), which I actually should have been working on. And I had a whole bag of kapok-like nylon. I told her, ‘Can you poke holes in that canvas and put some nylon in there?’ That’s what I had originally wanted to do myself. Well, she sweetly sat down in a quiet corner. She went to work and then did it thoroughly. Yes, she spent hours doing that.”43 The installation and Kusama’s presence were highlights of the exhibition, and many newspapers wrote about her and published photos of the installation. Her participation in the show Facets of contemporary eroticism, 1965, at the Orez Gallery, made Kusama a much-discussed star in the Netherlands. Upon her return, Kusama wrote to Peeters: How are you? I returned to New York a few days ago. […] Thank you very much for all you did for me while I was in Holland. I am very glad because of my associations with you. How did it go with my show and the Zero show after I left Holland? Did you find any new articles about me in the press?44

Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965, installation by Lucio Fontana. Photo by Ad Petersen, collection 0-archive

It was Peeters who brought Kusama into contact with Pontus Hulten, director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Harold Szeemann, director of the Berner Kunsthalle, and both wanted to include her work in their exhibitions. Several galleries also wanted to work with her; Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, the two owners of the Orez Gallery from The Hague, and Iris Clert, the gallerist of Yves Klein in Paris.45 In late 1965, Kusama wrote to Kultermann asking for his help in finding possibilities to show her work46: her participation in the Nul65 exhibition was a definitive start of her European career.47 Her primary support, however, after the opening in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, turned out to be Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon; they signed an exclusive contract with her and organized her shows in Essen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mönchengladbach, Prague, London, Loenersloot, and Berlin. Or was it Peeters after all? Kusama wrote to Vogel and Verboon: Did you give Mr. Henk Peeters my sculpture because he helped me so much for several years? My European success is due to the work that he did for me. Everything started with him. He discovered me […]48

Weiss auf Weiss (White on White), Kunsthalle, Bern, 1966 Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Philip Mechanicus, collection 0-archive

Otto Piene: “ZERO is not a group in a definitely organized way. There are no ‘members,’ there is only a human relationship among several artists and an artistic relationship among different individuals.” Published in The Times Literary Supplement, London, September 3, 1964. 2 In 2005, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and the author decided to use the word ZERO, in capitals, for the international movement, and Zero, for the group in Düsseldorf.

Günther Uecker joined “officially” the Zero group, by participating in the ZERO happening in 1961, with painting a large circle on the street. Also attending were Henk Peeters, Jan Henderikse, Pol Burry, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostel and the American journalist Antony Twathes. 4 Lucio Fontana organized, in 1964, an exhibition in his studio titled ZEROAvantgarde. By choosing this title he wanted to indicate that the group was of historical significance.

See Helen Westgeest, Zen in the Fifties: Interaction in Art Between East and West, Uitgeverij Waanders BV, 1997, p. 179. 6 Although Gutai was not a European group, it was very active in Europe and the USA since 1958. The group was promoted by Michel Tapies, who had connections with the “informal artists” Lucio Fontana and Georges Mathieu, who were, in turn, close to the activities of several ZERO artists. 7 The group’s name consisted of the words “gu,” meaning “tool,”and “tai” meaning “body.” 8 Robert Rauschenberg: “Voila, the origin of the happening!”, 1962. Published in: Gutai, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, 1999, p. 261. 9 Henk Peeters, interview by the author, Hall (NL), March 2010. 10 Enrico Castellani was also not so particularly interested in the ZERO activities. Because of his involvement with the Italian Red Brigades, Castellani had to hide regularly in Switzerland. 11 The A-chrome was first owned by Henk Peeters, and possibly later exchanged with Kusama for a work of hers. Kusama never met with Manzoni. 12 With Jan Schoonhoven, Armando, and Jan Henderikse, Peeters formed the NIG group (New Informal Group) in 1958. The group exhibited in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Great Britain. 13 The G58 group was founded in 1958 by Jef Verheyen, Mark Verstockt, Pol Bury, Walter Leblanc, and others. The group organized several shows per year at the Hessenhuis in Antwerp, with artists from their group and abroad, including the ZERO group from Rotterdam and Henk Peeters’ Nul group. 14 Letter from Henk Peeters to Udo Kultermann, June 1, 1960, RKD/Henk Peeters archive. 15 Henk Peeters, letter to Stephen Radich, June 14, 1961, folder “Yayoi Kusama,” box 5, Stephen Radich Papers, The Archives of American Art, Washington, DC. 16 Monochrome Malerei also included artists such as Mark Rothko, Willi Baumeister, Lucio Fontana, and Antoni

Tàpies. Peeters wanted to show the next generation, as he had seen in the exhibition Avantgarde 61 in Trier. 17 Because the Henk Peeters archive at the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague (RKD) was closed at the moment of research and writing, for the correspondence between Kusama and Peeters we refer to Niels van Maanen’s Yayoi Kusama, Een JapansAmerikaanse kunstenares in Nederland, 1962–1971, published by the University of Amsterdam in 2008. p. 9–13. 18 Niels van Maanen, p. 9–13. 19 Peeters invited Mark Rothko to participate in the Nul exhibition he planned for the Stedelijk Museum, but Rothko had also agreed to a solo show at the Stedelijk Museum for late 1961. 20 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 21 Niels van Maanen, p. 9–13. 22 It is not clear if Kusama’s paintings were included in the first show, as her name is not mentioned on the leaflet. It is quite possible that the artworks arrived too late. 23 Niels van Maanen, p. 9–13. 24 Letter from Henk Peeters to the intended participants of the Nul exhibition, July 2, 1960, RKD/Henk Peeters archive. 25 Letter from Henk Peeters to Willem Sandberg, February 4, 1961, RKD/Henk Peeters archive. “Together we want to perform a light ballet by Otto Piene, have Yves Klein play his monochrome music, Uecker do archery, Manzoni hand out eggs, etc.” 26 Midori Yamamura in Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015), p. 76. 27 Yves Klein wrote to Willem Sandberg that he was interested in a solo show, and on the same day he wrote Peeters that he could not see himself in a ZERO show, 0-INSTITUTE/ Henk Peeters Archive. 28 Peeters’ intention was to also invite the Japanese Gutai artists, but he did not succeed in contacting them. 29 Otto Piene told this story several times to the author. 30 Midori Yamamura based her information on an “old” plan made by Otto Piene. Photos show that Kusama’s work was not exhibited together with

Jef Verheyen. 31 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 32 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 33 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 34 Correspondence from Henk Peeters and Edy de Wilde with Guy Dorekens, 0-INSTITUTE/Henk Peeters Archive. The first letters date from 1962, the last from 1965, and discuss the loss and return of artworks sent by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to the Dorekens gallery in Antwerp. 35 Miss Yayoi Kusama, interview prepared for WABC Radio by G. Brown, Executive Editor of Art Voice. 24 Jan Henderikse, Heinz Mack, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker made a collage for Willem Sandberg (see p. 60) to convince him of the importance of their proposal: an international exhibition on the latest trend: ZERO. 25 0-INSTITUTE holds letters from Peeters to the participants about costs for printed matter, transport, insurance etc. 38 Henk Peeters, interview by the author, Hall (NL), 2015. 39 Interview by Marinus Boezem withHenk Peeters, Museumjournaal, series 16, no. 2 (April 1970), 81–82. The 0-INSTITUTE holds various proposals in the form of presentation sketches. 40 Correspondence between Henk Peeters and Edy de Wilde, 0-INSTITUTE/Henk Peeters Archive. 41 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 42 0-INSTITUTE/Henk Peeters Archive. 43 0-INSTITUTE/Henk Peeters Archive. 44 Kusama has been obsessively collecting reviews, interviews, photos. Her archive at the Kusama Studio has most of the original material, with handwritten dates, names, or short notes on the reverse. 45 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive. 46 Udo Kultermann advised Kusama to write to the German galleries Schmela, Muller, Springer, Nota, and Dato. 47 Letter from Yayoi Kusama to Udo Kultermann, Getty Research Institute/ Schmela Archive. 48 RKD/Henk Peeters Archive.

Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Philip Mechanicus, collection 0-archive, courtesy 0-INSTITUTE

Philip Mechanicus Just Fahner Location: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Date: April 15, 1965 Occasion: Nul65 exhibition Collection: 0-archive Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Location: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Date: April 15, 1965 Occasion: Nul65 exhibition Collection: 0-archive, Yayoi Kusama Studio Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Reviews of the Nul65 exhibition, collection Yayoi Kusama

Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by André Morain / Ad Petersen (montage), collection 0-archive, courtesy 0-INSTITUTE. Left to right Jiro Yoshihara, Hans Haacke, Henk Peeters, Rotraut Uecker, Jan Schooonhoven, Lucio Fontana, Pol Burri, Giani Colombo, Mrs. Fontana, Edy De Wilde, Mrs. De Wilde, Yayoi Kusama, George Rickey, Soto, Otto Piene, Nanda Vigo, Alfred Schmela, Heinz Mack, Emile Soestbergen, Günther Uecker

KUSAMA AND NUL ART THAT HEIGHTENS SELFAWARENESS Midori Yamamura*

*Midori Yamamura is assistant Professor at the City University of New York, Kingsborough Community College and Lecturer at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A specialist in post-WWII Asian and Asian Diaspora art. She is the author of Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press, 2015). Her second book is titled Japanese Contemporary Art since 1989: Emergence of the Local in the Age of Globalization. She contributed to several publications about Yayoi Kusama.

The experience of the war led many artists in war-torn countries to remarkably similar ideas. In Japan, disgusted by the rampant nationalism inherent in the war, Kusama imagined traveling overseas to “communicate with a wider audience” through her art.1 In the Netherlands, Henk Peeters, an underground anti-Nazi activist during the war, had similar thoughts and felt he had to go beyond “dangerous nationalism.”2 In June 1961, Peeters wrote to the New York Gallery Stephen Radich and asked about its advertisement in the art magazine Cimaise: “I should [sic] like to know more about Yayoi Kusama.”3 Peeters was organizing ekspositie nul, a large-scale international exhibition for Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum that would focus on the “new conceptions in art.” Most of the invited artists—including Kusama—had previously taken part in Avantgarde 61 at the Stadtisches Museum in Trier, Germany. Peeters realized that affinities existed in this circle of artists.

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, on the wall “Net” paintings. Photo by Oscar Van Alphen

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, installation by Armando. Photo by Oscar van Alphen

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, installation by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker. Photo by Manfred Tischer

Art That Heightens Self-Awareness Tijs Visser’s observation that Peeters’ early work makes “the viewer conscious of his environment,” may have applied to Peeters’ own experience of Kusama’s White XXA (1961); her submission to Nul.4 Measuring 254 x 594 cm, the ground for this so-called “Net” painting was prepared in black. Kusama then obsessively rendered small white arcs, each in a slightly different shape, until every square centimeter of the canvas was filled. She finished it by applying a thin layer of white that gave an “initial impression . . . of no-show.”5 This required people to come closer, diminishing the divide between viewer and painting. Seen from up close, the broad fragile surface of the “Net” painting potentially induced a tension that gave the viewer a sense of his or her own scale and existence. Kusama and Peeters would have agreed with the founders of the German Zero group, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, who were seeking to break from the universalistic way of thinking prevalent in fascism. In the first volume of the self-published magazine ZERO (1958), Mack and Piene manifested their views towards European philosophy by citing art critic Franz Roh. Roh expressed his wish that contemporary painting would produce a “view of reality” that could “spiritually” influence its spectator.6 Art that heightened the spectators’ selfawareness was necessary for them to acquire a view of reality that was not universalistic. Nul At the Nul exhibition, three galleries of the Stedelijk Museum were converted into environments, entitled: Salle de glace, Salle obscure and Salle de lumiere. These environments, like Kusama’s “Net” painting, heightened the viewers’ self-awareness. Salle de lumiere by Mack, Piene and Gunther Uecker demanded the viewers’ participation by “switching groups of lights and motors via a homespun switchboard.” The process heightened each spectator’s selfawareness and transformed him or her into an active creator. The maker of Salle obscure was the Dutch artist Armando. His monumental work made of new Goodyear car tires, overwhelmed the spectator with a penetrating smell of rubber in a completely darkened gallery. Salle de glace was a mirror-lined environment by Christian Megert. In a possible allusion to Sartre’s existentialism, spectators who entered the mirror room were immediately blinded by the harsh glare of a military floodlight, leading them into a moment when self-consciousness became pure self-identity.7 Locating Kusama’s Issues Christian Megert’s process of self-identity may be comparable to the way Kusama developed the “Net” paintings in her first environment, Aggregation:

One Thousand Boats Show, Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York, 1963. Photo by Rudolph Burckhardt, collection 0archive

Nul65, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Philip Mechanicus, collection 0-archive

Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962, miror installation by Christian Megert. Photo by Oscar van Alphen

One Thousand Boats Show, her contribution to the second Nul exhibition titled simply Nul65. Crucial to this development was her encounter with the psychoanalyst Yasuhiko Taketomo, who offered her a new scientific interpretation of her work. In his opinion, her creativity was driven by her obsessivecompulsive disorder, which resulted in repetitive behavior (compulsion). This explained why Kusama employed repetition and she began creating “many collages of postage stamps, airmail stickers and paper dollars,”8 which imaginatively expanded the scale of her collage into Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show.9 The work consisted of one actual sculpture made out of a scavenged rowboat, covered with hundreds of phallus-like objects, surrounded by 999 photo-reproductions of the boat. In her “Net” painting, the repetitiveness implied her efforts to transcend her psychic limits and elevate her inner life to a higher state that would help to dissociate her from social conformity.10 The uniform environment of the Boats Show, on the other hand, suggests a visualization of what Kusama described in an interview as “the strangely mechanized and standardized” modern society where many “psychosomatic problems” were rooted.11 Kusama explained that her artistic expressions always grew from the aggregation of these problems. The uniformity of the environment can be interpreted as representing the standardization of modern society that causes psychosomatic problems in people and, in her case, led to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Kusama’s interest in obsessive thoughts led her to probe deeply into her psyche for a feeling that Freud labelled “uncanny.” What she encountered in this exercise was an image of the phallus, derived from her experience of being a woman in the male-dominant Japanese and later, US society. She originally deployed this new idea in her Accumulation series, covering found objects, such as a sofa or shoes with countless stuffed sewn fabric protuberances symbolizing phalli. This then evolved into her first environment, Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show. Art, Science and Social Change The 999 posters in Kusama’s Boats Show anticipated the subsequent development of her work using mirrors. Similar to Megert’s Salle de glace, Kusama began introducing mirrors in her work Infinity Mirror Room (November 1965), which was grounded in a viewer’s intense process of self-exploration. By 1966, this had developed into Love Forever, her submission to Zero on Sea, a utopian project by Henk Peeters. It was her first psychedelic art, intended to scientifically alter human perception, which could result in social transformation. Likely inspired by the ideas of psychologist Timothy Leary, Kusama incorporated flashing lights, mandalic reflections, and music in her proposed mirror-lined room. As Leary postulated, such multimedia effects would produce visions similar to those acquired through LSD and thus activate dormant parts of the human brain and scientifically change perceptions of the world.12 Reinventing the environment with sound and visual effects was key to altering human behavior and would ultimately transform the organization of society. Examining the works of the primary participants of Zero on Sea would further reveal a distinct connective thread. From the post-war urgency of transcending nationalism and creating a new international community, art was then envisioned as a vehicle for active public engagement that would ultimately bring about social changes. If it had been realized, Zero on Sea could have served as a model for a participatory art project, which would have demonstrated that art can “help in building, reshaping, [and] humanizing society,” as Piene phrased it in 1969.13

Peep Show, Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1966. Photo by Peter Moore, collection Kusama Studio

Yayoi Kusama, “On the eve of departure for the USA: My dream is thus about to come true,” magazine clipping, folder 1957, Kusama Papers. 2 Henk Peeters, interview by author, January 1, 2007. 3 Henk Peeters, letter to Stephen Radich, June 14, 1961, folder “Kusama,” box 5, Stephen Radich Papers, The Archives of American Art, Washington DC. 4 Tijs Visser, “Henk Peeters” (London: James Mayor Gallery, 2010), np. 5 E. Kerkam quoted in “Brata,” Tenth Street Days: The Co-ops of the 50s (New York: Pleiades Gallery and The Association of Artist-Run Galleries, 1977), np. 6 F. Roh, “ZERO1” (1958), in: H. Mack and O. Piene (eds.), “ZERO 1, 2, 3,” (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973), p. 3. 7 Christian Megert used mirrors to reference J.-P. Sartre’s existentialism. F. Megert (wife of C. Megert), e-mail to author, March 28, 2009. 8 Yayoi Kusama, “Miss Yayoi

Kusama,” interview prepared for WABC Radio by G. Brown, Executive Editor of Art Voice, in “de nieuwe stijl” (interview, 1963; printed, 1965), p. 162. 9 999 was conceptually important, as traditionally in Japan, 1000 marked a symbolic transcendence into the next stage of life. 10 Midori Yamamura, “Transforming Infinity: Yayoi Kusama’s Net Painting,” in Yayoi Kusama (New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2009), p. 14–36. 11 Kusama, “Miss Yayoi Kusama,” op. cit. (note 9), p. 164. 12 Timothy Leary, “The Molecular Revolution” (1966), in “Timewave Zero/A Psychedelic Reader” (Graz, Austria: Grazer Kunstverein, 2001), p. 24–25. 13 Otto Piene, cited in Valerie Hillings, “Pure Possibilities for a New Beginning: Zero (1957–1966),” in “Experimental Artists’ Groups in Europe,” 1951–1968 (PhD dissertation, New York University, 2002), p. 194.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PEETERS AND KUSAMA Jaap Guldemond* Jaap Guldemond*

*Jaap Guldemond is Director of Exhibitions and curator of EYE in Amsterdam. He previously worked as a *Jaap Guldemond curator at the Van is Abbemuseum Director of in Exhibitions and the Eindhoven, curator Museum of EYE Boijin Amsterdam. mans VanHe Beuningen previously in worked Rotterdam. as a curator He curated at the theVan Yayoi Abbemuseum Kusama travelin Eindhoven, ing retrospective, and theMirror Museum Years, Boijwhich mans Van started at Beuningen the Museum in Boijmans Rotterdam. Van He curated the Beuningen, 2008. Yayoi The Kusama following travelexing retrospective, cerpts from lettersMirror were selected Years, which by started him for the at the exhibition Museumcatalogue, Boijmans Van but Beuningen, were ultimately 2008.not published.

A selection of fragments from letters is presented here, beginning with Peeters’ invitation to Kusama to participate in his first Nul exhibition, right up to the occasion when Kusama and Peeters first met in 1965. The correspondence is intriguing because it provides a telling impression of the situation within avant-garde art circles in Europe and the USA. During the first half of the 1960s: the struggle to survive as an artist, the quest to establish alliances, the quarrels, differences of opinion, and points of contention among the various artistic groupings prevailed. These letters provide insight into the practical aspects of operating as an artist in those days: the need to organize, supervise, and finance everything oneself. The original letters, and carbon copies, are kept without inventory at the following archives: 0-INSTITUTE/Henk Peeters Archive; Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)/Henk Peeters Archive, The Hague; Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo.

Letter from Peeters to Kusama October 10, 1961

dear miss kusama thank you for your adhesion to our ́nul ́- exhibition, which will be organised next march. also with great interest i saw your photos and afterwards your paintings in wolframs – eschenbach, at last in trier. i can tell you that also my colleagues here and in germany were very agreed with it. after all the trier show is a very good one, the best till now. we are neighbours there, our paintings are hung together in the centre [...]. if you destine your works from the trier-exhibition for the nul-show too, I should like to receive them early. if possible still this year one of them, if you like to participate to a small ‘accrochage’-show in arnhem at the gallery ‘a’ in january, with most of the artists of the trier-show.

Letter from Peeters to Kusama April 1962

dear miss kusama thank you for your letter of the 4th of april and i am glad that you were content with the catalogue and the poster. the exhibition took in the short period of 16 days about 13,000 visitors, also a record in the history of the stedelijk museum. i can not tell that the reactions were positive and it is quite understandable that we received more scandal than understanding people. without any exception the press wrote from amused to angry. the exhibition was very clean and silent, without any shocking or expressive moment. also very interesting that such a show can give so many aggressive and irritated reactions! the action-painters are quite accepted and nobody is shocked by them. also amusing is the press reaction: they were not ́shocked ́ and it was nothing ́to laugh about ́[...] i sent your name and address to the centre de recherche d ́art visuel, they prepare an exhibition in paris. i hope to meet them next week in paris and shall ask them where to find an interesting gallery for you. i also will look for other possibilities and write you if i find some. if you know some gallery in the u.s.a. who is interested in a group show of small works of our groups: we are very thankful in advance. we can ship it on our costs [...]

Written immediately after the first international Nul exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam

Letter from Peeters to Kusama April 1962

[...] the groupe de recherche d’art visuel sent me a folder with the works of that group, where I found a list of names, under ́neo-dada ́ myself and under ́nuance tachiste ́you. i am not very happy with that qualification and i fear: you too! the tendencies of that group are very close to constructivism, ́cool abstraction, geometry, etc. but it is very interesting that the differences between them and us become smaller [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters April 1962

Dear Mr. Henk Peeters; Thank you very much for your letter of April 18. I am so happy to learn that my telegram reached you on time, and so I can have my work kept at your museum. Of course I am going to pay the magazinage of my work [...] I am going to pay the transportation expense for this collage to Mr.

Baas, soon, but I would appreciate very much if you could pay for it now, so that I am going to send the money later when you let me know how much it cost. I want to keep the other collage at your place a little longer. Since I am waiting for the letter from Dr. Udo Kultermann, I will write you as soon as I hear from him, as to what to do with all of my work. I thank you very very much for your cooperation! Always grateful for your kind help. Letter from Peeters to Kusama May 1962

[...] if you would like to participate in a next exhibition, i shall tell you if any. but please send your work not as a ́gift, or else we have to pay tax, but as ́exhibition-wares ́ for temporal usage. [...] if there are any possibilities for an exhibition in the u.s.a., i mean the nul group, like fontana, castellani, maino, manzoni, aubertin, yves klein if we do not invite the germans mack and piene, and i would accept this since we and the stedelijk museum had very bad experiences with them, pol bury, arman, armando, colombo, dorazio, henderikse, holweck, megert, peeters, kusama, diter roth, schoonhoven, soto, uecker, verheyen, haacke and his friend downing. he just wrote that he visited you in new york and was very glad to see your work. in relation with our ideas for a nul exhibition in the states, i shall ask sandberg [Director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, JG] for a recommendation if they want any. don ‘t forget that sandberg is a supporter of action-painting and, with certain respect, doesn ‘t feel so much in our way. also in europe action-painting, structurism (spanish school) and neo-dada is in the running. and we have so much difficulties to take a distance from constructivism, that it is very hard to show a good exhibition about our meaning [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters July 1962

Dear Mr. Peeters; I have been just too busy to able to write to you until today. I am worried about my paintings left in your museum, since I fear the storage fees would be a great deal by now. I have been waiting for Mr. Kultermann but I have not heard yet. My dealer is now touring in Europe and she told me that she would visit all of my connections including Dr. Kultermann when he is in Germany. She also did tell me that she would visit you and also the Stedelijk Museum since she is familiar with the art director. She particulary wanted to see you [...]

Letter from Peeters to Kusama August 1962

[...] we are also preparing a great exhibition in the museum of modern art in paris with the help of julio le parc. it is politically good to keep friends with that group. i also feel not quite well and I think their interpretation of the new tendencies is not correct, but the future will make the correction in our big family of ́new ́artists. [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters August 1962

[...] I have not heard a word about Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel. I wonder what is happening to them. I agree with you in the point that you mentioned about their division of artists, catalogize them in certain groups like neo dada, touchiste, etc. I also think that the photographs used in the pamphlet are rather old work academically [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters September 1963

Dear Mr. Peeters, How have you been? Please excuse my negligence in writing to you for so long. Mrs. Perry, my agent here, told me she was very happy that she could see you in Europe [...] I have been working on my sculpture for more than a year, and now I have finished almost 60 works of them. They are in white monochrome, and have, by accumulation, white silhouette and light and tone. Quite recently I finished a large work which is an obsessive accumulation with a mirror and white net in the center. I am going to show several works of mine, at this beginning of the Art season in New York, at the Green gallery (one of the most avantgarde galleries here in New York). I have often participated in group shows at this gallery but none for my sculpture one-man show. I am very enthusiastic about this coming show [...] Recently Mr. Haacke (who came here from West Germany) visited me in my studio and talked about you. I was very much interested in knowing that within a year of two, there will be a big show of Exposition Nul here in New York. Since New York has been eager to push Pop art, the tendency like Exposition Nul has been somehow subdued. Those galleries representing Pop art are very nationalistic and exclusive. Under those galleries, young critics and museum people have worked hand in hand with all possible mass communication media, have introduced Pop art to the world. This Pop art, they think, is the second hit made in U.S.A., following the previous Action painting. Just within a year of two, some unknown artists suddenly became famous like Hollywood movie star story. However, this wave by commercialism is bound to last for a short time, and will find something new next. By this American Pop art, they became exclusive of others, and tended to subdue monochrome artists and the shows by young European artists. America, being placed in a very difficult situation politically, yet in art, is becoming more nationalistic as if paralleling to the policy of this country. Artists having difficult time under this condition are many, and some even told me that they wanted to move to Europe. Jackson Pollock once said “Art should be beyond the nationalities.” American art circle which has been under the power of Europe for a long time, now is regaining confidence and own independent power since Action painting. I am happy that America is producing her originality one after another, yet if the art is being exploited by the politics too far, it would be disadvantageous for American culture to advance spiritually with the true internationality. I do not agree totally about this drastic movement in American art circle

this past years. I have had ear trouble for quite a long time. Besides, there have been various difficulties in living for working on my sculpture. And this kept me from writing to any friends quite a while. Again I apologize for my negligence in writing to you. Wishing your good health, I will write again. Letter from Peeters to Kusama September 1963

dear miss kusama, thank you for your letter of 9th september. after seven weeks on holiday, i am home again i saw in san marino the biennale, not too bad and also i wondered your absence [...] if you want help from somebody, who can take care of your participation in european shows, please let me know and i shall, do if possible. i already wrote, the show was very interesting. on the first floor the new tendencies, too constructivist I think. a lot of second hand vasarely, like the groupe de recherché d’art visuel. Also an epigone of kusama (an italian called biggi) was noticed. on the second floor the semi-figurative painters like appel, jorn, platschek, very old fashioned and dated about 1920 in the german expressionist style. same epigones of bacon, and the new realists (groupe restany). those poster tearers are all the same, you don’t see any difference between rotella, hains, vostell, villeglé, etc. and if you see spoerri, oldenburg, arman, christo, etc together, it is disappointing. these works only have a shock in a museum between paintings. they are a protest only, also they want a public to find some resistance and that public failed [...] no, dada is unrepeatable. i believe, the only artists making something new with objects, are you, arman, klein. the photos, you sent to me some time ago, with the accumulations in the boat, were beautiful. i should like to show it next year in the stedelijk museum. next monday i’ll have lunch with de wilde, the new director, and i shall show him the photos. in zagreb i participated in the ‘new tendency-show’, but (also mack, piene and uecker) i distanced myself from those tendencies and i finished all my relations with the neoconstruc- tivists. they are still in the conflicts of the past century and they don’t understand anything about our ideas. the actual situation in europe is not much better than in the states, i believe. also here everybody, disillusionized by the bankruptcy of painting, where they loose a lot of money collectioning the ‘paris-school’ of hartung, mathieu, etc, are ripe for dada. now it is our public, saying that art is finished! we are on the start of a new epoque, but -as always- without supporters. also you have to be lucky under those unpretty conditions in the states. the pop-artists are looking for resistancing people and can’t find! they only find art-managers and the hollywood-circus. don’t forget the today’s newspaper is very uninteresting after a week. kind greetings, yours peeters

Letter from Kusama to Peeters October 1964

Dear hank; Please forgive me for not having written you so long. I suppose you are busy in your active ways. Thank you very much for arrangement for my work for the group show “Mikro Zero/Nul/Nieuw Realisme”. I am ever so grateful to your help for having invited me to participate in the group shows of your concern. I wish I could send my new work or more other work [...] My one-man show in New York last spring at Castellane gallery, “Driving Image Show” was a great success. It not only attracted a great many audience but interested people enormously, and acquired huge publicity. It is still art circle’s episode even now after about half a year. With my two one-man shows, “One Thousand Boat Show” & “Driving Image Show” I did leave a great impression on New Yorks art circle as a unique Avant-garde artist. People are anticipating with expectation that what kind of new idea I am going to show at my great one-man show in next spring [...] The gallery where I will have my one-man show in next spring is one of the first-class galleries in New York [...] I am quite occupied for the preparation of the show in which I will present about 50 large works. I received a letter from art director of Amsterdam Museum in which he told me that I am going to participate in 1965 international exhibition. I would like to thank you for your help and advice for this exhibition. Waiting to hear from you, soon

Letter from Peeters to Kusama November 1964

dear yayoi kusama, i was very glad to hear something from you and thank you very much for your letter of oct.12th [...] mr seitz was here for his ‘op-art’-show the ‘responsive eye’, but we are not interested to be shown in a show on vasarelism. he understands nothing at all about our art. i always tried to be not – visual, for the only things in life interesting to an artist are not or not yet visible. i always speak on behalf of armando and schoonhoven when I write that we have a very great respect for your last works. as far we saw the reproductions and photos we are very enthusiastic! the macaroni-show must be wonderful! in the next number of nul=O (the stencilled nul from the vries is not the original, he imitated our review!) i should like to write an article about you with the help of the interview and some other texts you sent to me [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters December 1964

Dear Mr. Hank Peeters; Thank you very much for your letter of November 11th. I am very grateful for your kind favor. I was also doubtful about Mr. Seitz’ understanding of the exhibition by optical illusion which was planned by Mr. Seitz himself. My work is not included among the numerous who are participating in this exhibition. (Students and even housewives are among the participants.) In my New York one-man show in 1959, I presented only white net monochromome work. At that time, New York critics called my work impressionism, and the people in general felt it difficult to recognize

as the common concept of painting because my work had no composition or color. Later the tendency similar to my work was beginning to appear here in New York, and right now the work like by Zero Group is blooming here. Even if I presented many work of noncomposition, monotone, and hyponotic and was recognized in Europe by people like you, I am not chosen, for the Modern Art Museum exhibition which has the same tendency as my work. I suppose lots of artists from Zero Group will participate in it [...] I am very grateful that you people are helping me for the group shows in Holland and Belgium, but my regret is that I do not have many of my work in Europe. To complete my sculpture means a lot of work. Even if I work from morning till night, my large sculpture takes up about a month. Besides, recently, I am occupied quite a bit by the visit from the photographers, writers who write about me, interviews by newsmen, photographing for the photo stories. Television and so on and so forth, thus sometimes I just cannot work on my sculpture. During the past month, I have been taken up by 6 newspapers, about 10 magazines, more than 10 art books, therefore it becomes headachy sometimes to arrange and accept those appointments of interviews and photographing. The staff of Belgian Television came to New York to photograph the new artists of art circle here. Through the recommendation of various fields, the following people are selected: George Segal, Roy Lichtenstein, Lee Bontecou, Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Marisol, Kusama, Jim Dine. This will be televised all over the world network, and it will be shown also in Holland, they say. I received the Catalogue No. 1 of Zero. I’m very thankful about your carryring my radio interview article in it [...] Letter from Kusama to Peeters March 1965

Dear Peeters, [...] Since it is as I explained impossible for me to make the boat in Europe I will pay part of the transportation of the boat if I cannot make an agreeable arrangement with the Holland- America Line. My show that I would like to present at this time will be a boat only along with 3,000 posters of the boat. There will be no spaghetti. Next time I can make Driving Image Show with macaroni, (Sex-Food-Obsession), (Repetitive Vision), (Macaroni Room) & Others, but this time I would like to make the 1,000 boat show as this process is much more simple & less expensive. I have the boat already made up and as I have much business here in New York I am not sure I will be able to make Europe right now. Since this show was a smash here I would like very much to have it at the International show.

Letter from Kusama to Peeters June 1965

Dear Mr. Peeters, How are you? I returned to New York a few days ago. I had so many things to do that it confused me and I did not write you sooner. Thank you very much for all you did for me while I was in Holland. I am very glad because of my associations with you. How did it go with my show and the Zero show after I left Holland? Did you find any new arti-

Written after their first meeting in April that year, on the occasion of the opening of the Nul exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam

cles about me in publications? I think I will have a show with Iris Clert in Paris next February. This would be the boat show. Ileana Sonnabend is also interested – she is moving to a new place. After she moves she will get in touch with me. Ileana wants to arrange a one-man show of my work in Venice next spring, she is helping me by introducing my work to various critics. Ileana and many others saw me in the Belgium television movie so they know my work. I want the Sonnabend Gallery very much because she has money, but I must be patient. Also she has many connections in publicity; but Iris Clert is also a very good gallery and she is a strong pusher [...] Letter from Peeters to Kusama September 1965

dear yayoi, thank you very much for your letters and excuse me that I could not answer you earlier: i just came back from greece, where i spent a wonderful time. back in holland i found a lot of work to do: since some days i am only writing letters, paying bills (without having money in the bank) spending a lot of time in conversations on the telephone. i need a secretary. you have been very kind to send me such a lot of information about an eventual trip to u.s [...]

Letter from Kusama to Peeters March 1966.

Dear Mr. Peeters; I have just returned from Milano, I had wanted to visit you while I was in Europe (I even bought a ticket for Amsterdam). However, my one-man show at Milano, my preparation for Venice bienale, together with coming one-man show in New York made my schedule very tight in Milano, which, unabled me to see you. I regret this very very much. [...]

Letter from Kusama to Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon March 1966

Dear Albert and Leo, Thank you very much for the letters that I received in Milano and New York. I am sorry not to have written sooner but I have been very busy both in Milano and New York. Anyhow you should have received my drawing of the light show and I hope you are interested in the idea. Yesterday I met Otto Piene and Mack of Germany and they told me that I must hurry and complete everything very quickly. They also said they were very happy to work together with me in Holland. When I had my “Floor Show” in New York it was a great success and many people said it was the best show this season in New York. You cannot imagine how wonderful it was to walk into this room completely surrounded by mirrors and people were surprised because the mirrors reflected an infinite horizontal surface forever [...] After I did this floor show now I am making ceiling show with electric lights and music as I explained in the sketch I sent to you. The mirrors on the wall must be spaced slightly apart to allow heat to escape from hexagon and to allow people to peep into the room. I am going to call this the “Peep Show” because people will look from the outside into the space where the lights will be reflected

in the mirrors. After the people have peeped into the space they can come into the room and will be overwhelmed with light. This image will be a fantastic sensation in the exhibition [...] Please take care of my publicity very well in Holland. Did you give to Mr. Henk Peeters my sculpture because he helped me so much for several years. My European success is due to the work that he did for me. Everything started from him. He discovered me [...] Letter from Kusama to Peeters September 7, 1966 Written in Dutch (see next page), and in fact, the last correspondence between the two artists, as Leo Verboon and Albert Vogel took over the coordination of her projects in Europe.

Dear Henk. How are you? What are you doing right now? I haven't seen a letter from you in a long time. Thank you very much; you were a great help with everything around Dutch TV and I was very pleased to meet you again in Amsterdam in April. [...] Leo and ARBATO came to New York. I spoke to them and introduced them to the galleries. Leo sent Gordon an article that has been published for a long time, I believe you've already seen it. Gordon told me that English was not so good and he had to change a lot. If you have difficulties with the language he will update it for you. If you also have time later for an article about your work, not about the museum publications. Then send it to Gordon too. Art magazine has a section called "what artist says," he can introduce your art in it with a picture of you. We have pictures of you, and we have reserved them for you. This week Newsweek and Saturday Review have an article about me and my work. Arts magazine will have an article about me next month with several photos and Art in America, and others. I just got back to New York from Venice and will be working very hard in my studio. I was in Europe for three months, and now I am exhausted. I hope to go to Berlin this fall. Because Leo told me there's an extensive exhibition coming up. And have you seen the pictures from the Biennale I sent to Leo? I would like to hear your news. My best wishes to your family. I fervently hope to see you again. Thank you for everything. Many kind regards and best wishes from Kusama

Letter from Kusama to Peeters, collection 0-archive

COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN “HENK” AND “YAYOI” Tijs Visser

“The collaboration was key!” as Günther Uecker wrote in ZERO 3, a selfpublished magazine from 1961: “Immediate experience comes only when we ourselves participate. To obtain the widest participation, the production of art must cease to be limited to the individual, as it has been until now.” The artists came together in their desire to move away from subjective movements, such as Action Painting or Art Informel. Instead, they de-emphasized the role of the artist's hand to create art that was purely about the work's materials. Creation Belgian painter Jef Verheyen created a gold-painted canvas for Lucio Fontana, who, in turn, finished it off in the presence of a television team, with his “well-known” perforations.1 To continue the idea of collaboration, Fontana and Verheyen created another work for their fellow artist Hermann Goepfert, who installed a metal reflector on the painted and perforated canvas. The result: an artwork that consisted of three steps and elements; paint, holes, and light (the reflector), a work with “time” and “space,” and to be experienced by the movement of the observer.2 Composition For the first Nul exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker created a room with moving, rotating, reflecting, projecting objects: the light-ballet, a work for which ZERO became known. After the exhibition, the objects that made the installation a whole, were again exhibited as independent works. The "light ballets" could be built-up each time from other objects into a total installation, and presented as a "group" work. The visitors were invited to switch the objects on and off, and so compose their own “ballet.”

Yayoi Kusama, Kaardlont vlokken (65#01), 1965, card sliver tufts on plastic, 200 x 90 cm

Reconstruction The Japanese Gutai group was mainly known for short-term outdoor exhibitions. Most of the works were made on-site for the show, and afterward thrown away or "recycled." For the Nul65 presentation, the works from the outdoor exhibitions had to be "reconstructed" by Jiro Yoshihara, the Gutai group leader, his son, and students of Henk Peeters. The public was invited to touch, walk on, and listen to various objects, and experience the room as a total interactive installation. In several cases, collaborative works arose from a friendship between artists, but also from practical considerations: money or lack of time. Creating works together or for another can therefore be seen as both practical and ideological, with the “hand” of the artist absent as much as possible.

Nul65

Zero, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 2005, with the work made by Kusama (left), and the “deepfreezer” by Peeters. Photo by Tijs Visser

In April 1965, Kusama traveled to Amsterdam to install her work at the Stedelijk Museum, on the invitation of Henk Peeters. Because of her difficulty in communicating with the museum staff, Peeters assigned one of his art school students, Paul Damsté, to assist with the installation of her boat. After the work was done, and as Kusama was keen to do something else, Peeters suggested that she make a new work. As Peeters also planned to create a new artwork himself, he gave her his materials. So Kusama produced a large white plastic canvas, through which she had woven carding twine. Not exactly Peeters’ style, but he kept it as an example of group work.3

Intercontex fair, RAI Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Philip Mechanicus, collection 0-archive

Intercontex fair That same year, Peeters was asked to furnish the stand of a textile company, Modana N.V., for a trade fair in Amsterdam. Peeters had an idea for a ceiling with plastic gloves filled with water. He had asked Kusama to make a proposal, but before receiving her answer, he already had an idea for her. He made a sketch of it and sent it to her. She reacted positively and Peeters asked Paul Damsté and Egbert Philips, also one of his art school students, to make a globe with silver sprayed textile gloves filled with sawdust. The work hung under Peeters’ ceiling, on a small rotating motor. Peeters reconstructed the globe in 2006, which was later titled by Kusama Flower Chandelier.4 Peeters said: In fact, it was my idea, but Kusama liked it, so this time I made an artwork for her! The original globe was sprayed silver, as that worked better with the plastic bags; but for the reconstruction I used cheap pink dishwashing gloves, which I regularly use in my works.5

Uit Bellevue Zero, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, 2018, on the floor Socle du Monde by Piero Manzoni. Photo by Tijs Visser

In 1965, when Henk Peeters was commissioned to deliver ideas for decorating and presenting the Vara television program Uit Bellevue, he asked Kusama to participate, and that's why Kusama is mentioned in the credits: Directed by Yayoi Kusama and Henk Peeters.6 His idea was to make an exhibition with artworks from his ZERO colleagues, mainly from his own collection, and to stage a fashion show with

Ideas for works with plastic and water by Henk Peeters, for Zero on Sea, 1965, collection 0-archive

clothes made by students from the Akademie in Arnhem, where he was teaching. Joop van Tijn would interview some ZERO artists, including Ferdinand Spindel, George Rickey, Gunther Uecker, and Yayoi Kusama. And the planned project for the pier of Scheveningen would also be presented, which is why Kusama had been flown in especially from America. Furthermore, Kusama would show some of her works, which were previously exhibited at the Orez Gallery, including a chair with phalluses, a macaroni suitcase and shoe, and bottles with phalluses, and in addition, two mannequins wrapped in silver foil. Most of the newspapers were very critical and mentioned the barely understandable Yayoi Kusama. 1

Uit Bellevue, ZERO&NUL, 1966. Fashion show with cloth made by Peeters’ students. Photo by Frans van Geelen / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid

Uit Bellevue, ZERO&NUL, 1966. Henk Peeters and George Rickey interviewed by Ed van Tijn. Photo by Frans van Geelen / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid

Uit Bellevue, ZERO&NUL, 1966. Photo by Frans van Geelen / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid

Tijs Visser, Zero, ex. cat. Martin Gropiusbau, Berlin/Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2015, p. 497. 2 Ibid. p. 314. 3 Kusama authenticated the work in 2006 as an original work of hers. Before that date, the work was included in many “ZERO” exhibitions, but as a work by Henk Peeters. 4 There was no title known by Henk Peeters until Kusama mentioned the work in the recent publication ZERO IS INFINITY, Zero and Yayoi Kusama,

Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo, 2020, ex. cat., p. 51. 5 Henk Peeters, interview by the author, Hall (NL), March 2005. 6 The program was broadcast live from the Bellevue Theater in Amsterdam on March 4, 1966. Directed by Yayoi Kusama and Henk Peeters, and with interviews by journalist Joop van Tijn with artists, in German and in English. See: https://www.beeldengeluid.nl

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS Tijs Visser

Henk Peeters (left), Günther Ucker (far left) and Nanda Vigo (far right), Jiro Yoshihara (middle right), Ad Petersen (right), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by André Morain, collection 0-archive

The European success of Yayoi Kusama was thanks to the support of several “ZERO” artists. After museum director Udo Kultermann introduced Kusama to Europe in 1960, the Dutch Nul artist Henk Peeters invited Kusama to participate in exhibitions in Holland and Belgium, from 1962 on. The German Zero artist Otto Piene included her work in a touring ZERO exhibition in the USA in 1964, followed by the Italian Lucio Fontana, who brought Kusama to Milan in 1965, the Swiss Christian Megert, who introduced her work in Bern in 1965, and the German Ferdinand Spindel, who showed her work in Gelsenkirchen in 1966. Kusama wrote to Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, owners of the Orez Gallery: My European success is due to the work that Henk Peeters did for me. Everything started from him. He discovered me.

Henk Peeters Lucio Fontana, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by André Morain, collection 0-archive

After Udo Kultermann shows Kusama’s work from the exhibition Monochrome Malerei in Leverkusen to Henk Peeters, Peeters begins a lively correspondence with Kusama, asks her for works, and includes her in almost all the exhibitions he organizes.1 He also uses his many contacts to promote Kusama’s work, speaking and writing to artists, curators, and galleries.2 Galerie Dorekens When Peeters is asked to participate in the group exhibition great masters, small formats, organized by the Antwerp Galerie Dorekens, he arranges for Kusama to also be included.3 But because not all of Kusama’s works make it through customs in time, the gallery organizes a seperate solo exhibition. This is Kusama’s first solo exhibition in Europe.4 Stedelijk Museum After the first Nul exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in

which Kusama participates with large “Net” painting, Henk Peeters also invites Kusama for the second Nul exhibition. To create her installation Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show, Kusama travels to Amsterdam, her first trip to Europe. Due to the success of Peeters’ first Nul exhibition, many journalists, gallerists, and exhibition makers, such as Harald Szeemann and Pontus Hulten, travel to the Stedelijk Museum to attend the opening. In a short period, Kusama is introduced to many curators and artists. Orez Gallery Peeters also brings Kusama into contact with the two owners of the Orez Gallery from The Hague: Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, who invite her to show new work in the gallery that same year, as part of the group exhibition Facets of contemporary eroticism.5 The Dutch collector Frits Becht purchases six Kusamas, which prompts the gallery to offer her a contract, and thus the Orez Gallery becomes Kusama’s exclusive representative in Europe.6 Donation Despite the success of the Nul65 exhibition, the Stedelijk Museum is left with a financial deficit, and its director Edy de Wilde therefore asks the artists to pay the return shipping costs themselves.7 Peeters decides to donate an artwork to the museum as payment for the expenses incurred and advises Kusama to do the same. Kusama agrees to donate the boat from her installation Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show.8 Scheveningen Shortly after the successful Nul65 exhibition, Peeters develops the project Zero on Sea for the pier near The Hague, and invites Kusama to make an installation. Together with the Orez Gallery, he is responsible for the planning and execution, but the gallery is unable to find the necessary funds.

Dorekens gallery with a list of works sent and returned. The largest work, No. P.3.B., was lost after the show. The exhibition was never mentioned in Kusama’s biographies. 5 Although a group exhibition, Kusama had her own room with works, presented as a solo show. 6 Frits Becht was an art collector Friends whose collection included the earliest Zero on Sea participant Ferdinand monochrome works by Manzoni. But Spindel takes Kusama to he also had a gallery, De Posthoorn, Gelsenkirchen to discuss with Udo Kultermann the possibility of showing in The Hague. 7 Those artists who failed to collect her work in Germany again; Nanda Vigo drives Kusama to Milan, so that their work in time, or were unable to pay the return transport costs, found she can make works in the studio of their work dumped in the garbage of Lucio Fontana; Christian Megert inthe museum. vites Kusama to Bern to work on an exhibition for the local Kunsthalle. In a 8 After the Nul65 show, the boat was exhibited at the Moderna Museet in short period of time, Kusama finds Stockholm, and the Kunsthalle Bern, supportive friends all over Europe.10 without posters. In 2006 the boat was shown, on the initiative of the author, Collections According to Peeters’ archive, he has as the original total installation with the 999 posters. “owned” various artworks by Kusama; objects with macaroni, early 9 In her letters to galleries around the “Net” paintings, and photo collages. world, Kusama frequently mentioned her success in the press and televiKusama regularly asks Peeters to keep those works for his exhibitions, sion. She also mentioned all those or sell them to pay for the exhibition galleries who wanted to show her. 10 Kusama had asked Udo Kultermann costs. if he could help her find a gallery in Germany. Kultermann gave Kusama a 1 list with the names of the gallerie Henk Peeters included Kusama’s work in over sixteen exhibitions, and Schmela, Muller, Springer, Nota, and Dato. Kusama wrote to all those galhe published several short texts leries, but none of them were able to about her in newspapers and art give her a show. magazines. 2 Henk Peeters proposed the artists from the French group “Centre de Recherche d Art Visuel” (GRAV) to include Kusama in their shows. As Peeters was not satisfied with how they were both categorized by GRAV: Kusama as “Nuance Tachiste” and Peeters as “Neo-Dada,” Kusama was never included. 3 From Henk Peeters’ archive, it appears that small works on paper were sent by Kusama to the Galerie Dorekens, and were probably included in the group exhibition great masters, small formats. After the show the works were sent to Peeters. 4 The archives of Peeters and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam include correspondence to the Shortly before the official cancellation, Kusama arrives in Holland to participate in a television broadcast about Zero on Sea. By that time, Kusama is already a media star in Holland and her reputation is rapidly growing abroad.9

Gunther Uecker and Michio Yoshihara, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Ad Petersen, collection 0-archive

Henk Peeters, Rotraut Uecker-Klein, Emile Soestbergen, and Günther Uecker, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by André Morain, collection 0-archive

Harold Szeemann and Lucio Fontana, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1965. Photo by Ad Petersen, collection 0archive

Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana had certainly appreciated Kusama’s work since the Udo Kultermann exhibition in Leverkusen. Fontana, one of the oldest participants in the ZERO movement, was known for his early recognition of talents. He supported young artists with purchases of their works.1

Lucio Fontana, in the basement of his studio, Milan, 1966

Fontana’s studio After the opening of the Nul65 exhibition, Fontana’s assistant, the architect Nanda Vigo, is instructed to drive Kusama to Milan and bring her to Fontana’s studio.2 Fontana organizes an exhibition in his studio under the title ZERO Avantgarde, a first historical overview of the international ZERO movement, traveling on from Milan to other locations in Italy. Because Kusama arrives after the opening, the works she creates in the studio, two chairs, can’t be included in Milan, but later in Venice and Turin.3 Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio With Nanda Vigo, Kusama travels to Venice to attend the opening of the ZERO Avantgarde show at the Galleria del Cavallino. In Venice she meets the owner of Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio, Renato Cardazzo, a good friend of Fontana, who invites her to produce works for a solo show in his Milan gallery. Venice Biennale It is during her stay in Milan that Cardazzo suggests Kusama to present a proposal for an outdoor installation at the 33rd Venice Biennale. Fontana, who had been supporting several other artists, decides to support Kusama’s proposal and finances the production of the installation for the Venetian Giardini.4

Renato Cardazzo, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, 1966. Photo possibly by Giacomelli

Grosvenor Gallery Renato Cardazzo also has contact with the Grosvenor Gallery in London. The idea is to ship the exhibited works from Milan to the gallery in London.5

Christian Megert On their way to Amsterdam, Nanda Vigo and Lucio Fontana regularly make a stopover in Switzerland to visit Christian Megert in Bern. Megert is a close friend and works together with Harald Szeemann. Kusama reports in her diary that she drove with “an architect” [Nanda Vigo, TV] over the “Swiss, snowy, white Alps” to Bern, where she meets Christian Megert6

A large part of the collection is still at the Fontana foundation and includes important works by Yves Klein, Otto Piene, Jef Verheyen and many others. 2 The documentary made by Belgian Television in 1965 included photos of Kusama in Fontana’s studio, surrounded by the “mannequin” works. Several of those works were exhibited at the Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio. 3 The ZERO Avantgarde poster was made for both venues, Milan and Venice. Kusama was mentioned on the poster, but her work was not exhibited in Milan. The exhibition traveled to Turin, Brescia and Rome, but without Kusama’s works. 4 In return for the financial support she received from Fontana, Kusama gives him a phallus-covered suitcase. 5 In fact many works were sent from Galleria del Cavallino to Galerie Thelen in Essen, from Essen to the Orez Gallery in The Hague, and from there to Loenersloot (Holland), where they were exhibited in gallery Mickery, and then back to Galerie Thelen again. 6 Kusama stayed at the house of Christian Megert in Bern, where she saw the objects with mirrors for which Megert was well-known. Upon her return to New York, she developed “Infinity” mirror rooms.

Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker, Howard Wise Gallery, New York, 1964. Photo by Lock Huey

Ferdinant Spindel (left) and Udo Kultermann (second left), Spindel’s home in Gelsenkirchen, 1965

Otto Piene

Ferdinand Spindel

Institute of Contemporary Art Otto Piene also sees Kusama's work for the first time in the exhibition Monochrome Malerei by Udo Kultermann. In the subsequent exhibitions by Henk Peeters, Piene sees more works. In the mid-sixties Piene moves to New York and includes her work in the self-organized ZERO exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

Halfmannshof The German artist Ferdinand Spindel and Kusama both participated in several exhibitions organized by Otto Piene in Philadelphia, Christian Megert in Bern, and Henk Peeters in Amsterdam. Spindel is the leader of the artists’ association Halfmannshof in Gelsenkirchen, and also a determined organizer: almost all ZERO artists exhibit at the Halfmannshof, the artist settlement where Spindel also has his studio.

Electromedia Black Gate Theater Piene and other international ZERO artists, including Hans Haacke, show reguarly at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York. Kusama is a frequent visitor to the gallery, specialized in new media. In 1965, Piene and Aldo Tambellini open the Electromedia Black Gate Theater, where Kusama performs her first audiovisual light performance, titled Self-Obliteration in 1967.

Christian Megert

Studio of Ferdinand Spindel, Halfmannshof, Gelsenkirchen, 1966

The German Television, Halfmannshof, Gelsenkirchen, 1966

Galerie Aktuell The Swiss artist Christian Megert participates with Kusama in several exhibitions organized by Henk Peeters. In turn, Megert shows Peeters and Kusama in his gallery in Bern, the Galerie Aktuell. The exhibition titled Aktuell 65 brings together works by artists from different groups: New Tendencies, Zero, Arte Programmata, Anti-Peinture, GRAV and Nul. Berner Kunsthalle A year later, Megert, together with Harald Szeemann, organizes the exhibition Weiss auf Weiss in the Berner Kunsthalle. The show offers an overview of developments in art, from the Russian constructivists to the most recent movements. Kusama’s boat from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is placed in a historical context, with artists such as Kazimir Malevich.

Internationale Galerij Orez Spindel meets Kusama at the Internationale Galerij Orez in The Hague, where he participates in the exhibition Facets of Contemporary Eroticism, and invites her to use his studio and the exhibition space at the Halfmannshof. Kultermann Kusama first comes to Spindel’s house to talk with him and Kultermann about the possibilities in Germany. They bring Kusama into contact with Karl Ernst Jöllenbeck, director of the Thelen gallery in Essen. Galerie Thelen The gallery works with several artists from the international ZERO network, such as Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana. On the advice of Kultermann the gallery decides to organize an exhibition in collaboration with the Orez gallery. Kusama brings the unsold works from her exhibition in Milan to Gelsenkirchen. Because the German television shows interest in her work, she uses those works to create an installation in Spindel’s studio before the show opens—as a real media event—at the Thelen gallery in Essen.1

The film director, a good friend of Otto Piene, also made an important documentary about the ZERO movement, titled 0 x 0 = ZERO, Maler ohne Pinsel (Painter without Brush).

Frits Becht

Heinz Mack, Halfmannshof, Gelsenkirchen, 1966. Photo by Astrid Starcken

Udo Kultermann (right), Galerie Thelen, Essen, 1966

Grosvenor Gallery Thanks to the mediation of Renato Cardazzo, Kusama ships a container with new works from New York to the London Grosvenor Gallery. But the works do not reach the gallery due to a major customs strike. For almost a year, the works are kept in storage in London, partly because the Orez Gallery is not willing to pay the customs, storage and transport costs.1 Orez Frits Becht, the Dutch collector with a Kusama collection, purchases the container with works from Kusama and pays for the customs and transport, much to the annoyance of Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, which results in the break between Kusama and the Orez gallery. Becht, in turn, sells almost all the works to the Thelen gallery.2

Jan Schoonhoven

Frits Becht (in the background left), Birds’ Club, Amsterdam, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Jan Schoonhoven and Nanda Vigo, at the home of Schoonhoven, Delft, 1967. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

Orez After Jan Schoonhoven first joined the Rotterdam Zero group, with Gust Romijn and Piero Manzoni, he gave the group the new name Orez, a reversal of the word zero. Like Henk Peeters, Schoonhoven was from the outset interested in including Kusama’s work in any of the Nul exhibitions, starting in Arnhem in 1962. From then on, Kusama was regularly exhibited in the Orez shows in The Hague and the Nul shows in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Jazz His wife, Anita, organized jazz concerts and a festival at the jazz club Novum, in a student society in Delft. Artists of the Zero movement regularly visited the Schoonhovens to party and listen to new jazz music. Kusama was good friends with both Jan and Anita, who invited Kusama to organize a Naked Body Festival in the

jazz club. After the first festival in The Hague, Jan Schoonhoven was only too happy to undress and be painted naked by Kusama again, in Delft and Schiedam.

The Frits Becht archive contains the correspondence between Kusama and Becht about the customs problems in London. She was anxious that the works will be auctioned and thus damage her market. 2 The Frits Becht archive contains a list of all the works and prices of the works Becht sold to the Thelen gallery. See p. 98.

EXHIBITIONS 1960–1965 in the context of the international ZERO movement

The facts about the exhibitions were gathered with the help of the following institutes: - 0-INSTITUTE - Flemish Artists Archives (CKV), Antwerp - Orez Estate / Municipal Archive of The Hague - Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), The Hague - Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo - ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf - Gropiusbau, Berlin and the following publications: - Inventing the Singular, by Midori Yamamura, published by The MIT Press, 2015 - Infinity Net, the autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, published by Tate Publishing, 2011 - Higher that Level!, A History of International Gallery Orez, by Caroline de Westenholz, published by Uitgeverij Lias, 2016 - Love Forever, exhibition catalog, published by the Los Angelos County Museum of Art, 1998 - Yayoi Kusama, A Retrospective, exhibition catalog, published by the Gropiusbau, Berlin, 2021 and additional information and corrections from: - Massimo Ganzerla - Colin Huizing - Greta Kühnast - Niels van Maanen - Antoon Melissen - Etsuko Sakurai

This abridged list of group exhibitions held mainly in Europe gives an idea of the network built by the German, Italian, and Dutch artists in the late fifties and early sixties. It shows the important ZERO centers: in the Netherlands (The Hague and Rotterdam), Germany (Düsseldorf and Frankfurt), and Italy (Milan and Rome). Kusama participated in all these exhibitions, several times with the same works. Udo Kultermann was the first curator, in 1960, to present Yayoi Kusama with ZERO artists in a European museum; Willem Sandberg subsequently opened the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to an initiative by Henk Peeters, who included Kusama in 1962 and 1965 in both Nul exhibitions. Lucio Fontana invited Kusama to Milan, where she worked in his studio, and showed her work in Italy, as part of the “retrospective” ZERO Avantgarde. The German artists included her work in a touring ZERO exhibition in Philadelphia and Washington. Christian Megert was, in turn, responsible for proposing Kusama to several institutes in Switzerland.

idea to organize a comparable exhibition. Together with Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Yves Klein, the plan for an exhibition with only white works is born.

Giulio Turcato, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, Herbert Zangs, and others Artworks: Infinity Net paintings White O.X. (1960), No. 2 J.B. (1960), No. H Red (1961) Printed matter: Catalog (with an image of “Net” painting No. 2 J.B. (1960)) Note: Henk Peeters writes to Kusama that their works are installed in the same room, together with the works by Piero Manzoni.

Leverkusen 1960 Städtisches Museum, Schloss Morsbroich Monochrome Malerei (Monochrome Painting) Opening: March 8, 1960 Curator: Udo Kultermann Speech: Otto Piene Artists: Herman Bartels, Willi Baumeister, Enrico Bordoni, Enrico Castellani, Serge Charchoune, Piero Dorazio, Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Johannes Geccelli, Rupprecht Geiger, Raimund Girke, Raymond Grandjean, Oskar Holweck, Nicolas Ionesco, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, R Francesco Lo Savio, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Georges Mathieu, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Herbert Oehm, Otto Piene, Lothar Quinte, Arnulf Rainer, Mark Rothko, Salvatore Scarpitta, Antoni Tàpies, Günther Uecker, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Jef Verheyen, Mark Verstockt, and others Artwork: one white on black Infinity Net painting, titled Composition (1959). Three other paintings arrived too late but were sent to Wolframs-Eschenbach Printed matter: Poster (design Otto Piene), Catalog, Invitation Note: Henk Peeters visits Udo Kultermann, who shows him Kusama’s works from the exhibition. Peeters has the

Trier Wolframs-Eschenbach 1961 Deutschordensschloss Internationale Malerei 1960-61 (International Painting) Opening: July 15, 1961 Curators: Will Grohmann, Heiner Ruths Speech: Otto Maurer Organizer: Galerie 59, Aschaffenburg Artists: Armando, Edmondo Bacci, Hermann Bartels, Mario Bionda, Hajo Bleckert, Peter Brüning, Raphael Canogar, Enrico Castellani, Mario De Luigi, Piero Dorazio, Luis Feito, Lucio Fontana, Johannes Geccelli, Rupprecht Geiger, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Jan Henderikse, Gottfried Honegger, Friedens-reich Hundertwasser, Boris Kleint, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Francesco Lo Savio, Adolf Luther, Piero Manzoni, Pol Mara, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Achille Perilli, Mimmo Rotella, Antonio Saura, Jan Schoonhoven, Fred Thieler,

1961 Städtisches Museum Avantgarde 61 Opening: October 7, 1961 Curator: Curt Schweicher Speech: Otto Maurer Artists: Armando, Bernd Berner, Hermann Bartels, Hans Bischoffshausen, Hajo Bleckert, Enrico Castellani, Mario De Luigi, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Rupprecht Geiger, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Jan Henderikse, Oskar Holweck, Gottfried Honegger, Boris Kleint, Yayoi Kusama, Raimer Jochims, Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, Thomas Kaspar Lenk, Francesco Lo Savio, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Lothar Quinte, Arnulf Rainer, Günther Sellung, Jan Schoonhoven, Günther Uecker, Herbert Zangs Artworks: possibly the same works as in Wolframs-Eschenbach: Infinity Net paintings White O.X. (1960), No. 2 J.B. (1960), No. H Red (1961) Printed matter: Poster (with an image of a “Net” painting). Note: Armando, Henk Peeters, and Jan Schoonhoven are in Trier where they see the works by Kusama.

Organizer: Henk Peeters

The Hague 1962 Internationale Galerij Orez Nieuwe tendenzen (New Tendencies) Opening: January 18, 1962 Curators: Henk Peeters, Hans Sleutelaar Speech: Peter Iden Artists: Arman, Jón Gunnar Árnason, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Hermann Bartels, Stanley Brouwn, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Piero Dorazio, Klaus J. Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Gotthard Graubner, Gerhard von Graevenitz, Jan Henderikse, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Oskar Holweck, Gottfried Honegger, Yves Klein, Boris Kleint, Yayoi Kusama, Heinz Mack, Dadamaino, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Franz Mon, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Arnulf Rainer, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, Herman de Vries, Rolf Weber Artwork: Infinity Net painting Printed matter: Invitation Note: the exhibition is developed in close collaboration with Henk Peeters. The gallery, whose programmatic name is a reversal of zero, is a significant presentation space for the 1960s international avant-garde. Not all participating artists appear on the invitation; therefore, Henk Peeters has added the missing names, including Kusama.

Artists: Armando, Jón Gunnar Árnason, Hermann Bartels, Stanley Brouwn, Vic Gentils, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Gotthard Graubner, Jan Henderikse, Gottfried Honegger, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Dadamaino, Piero Manzoni. Christian Megert, Marcel Raysse, Diter Rot, Jef Verheyen, Herman de Vries, Rolf Weber Artwork: photo-montage (probably Accumulation of Nets No. 1 (1961) or Accumulation of Nets No. 2 (1962))

heyen, Herman de Vries Artworks: Infinity Net paintings No. 1 A.2, No. T.W.2 (both 1960), and No. White X.X.A. and egg carton relief No. P.3.B. (all 1961) Printed matter: Poster (design by Henk Peeters, includes an image of a “Net” painting) Note: the director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Willem Sandberg, hosts a comprehensive exhibition on the new avant-garde, organized and curated by Peeters. After Monochrome Malerei, the exhibition is the most important museum show in the early years of ZERO. The selection of the artists is made in close collaboration with Heinz Mack, Otto Piene Günther Uecker, Yves Klein, and Piero Manzoni. The exhibition is a public success, and the press response, following a letter by Peeters to Kusama, is "amused to angry".

Printed matter: Leaflet Note: the gallery is an initiative of Henk Peeters. He wants to gain public attention and announce the upcoming Nul show at the Stedelijk Museum.

Amsterdam

1962 Galerie A Accrochage 1962 Opening: February 1, 1962

1962 Stedelijk Museum ekspositie nul Opening: March 9, 1962 Curator: Henk Peeters Artists: Arman, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Dadamaino, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Hermann Goepfert, Hans Haacke, Jan Henderikse, Oskar Holweck, Yayoi Kusama, Francesco Lo Savio, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Jan Schoonhoven, Günther Uecker, Jef Ver-

Collage by Jan Henderikse, Heinz Mack, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker for the Nul show, 1962, collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Arnhem

Leiden 1962 Leids Akademisch Kunst-centrum Nieuwe tendenzen (New Tendencies) Organizer: Henk Peeters Opening: March 14, 1962 Artists: Jón Gunnar Árnason, Hermann Bartels, Gianni Colombo, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven, Lucio Fontana, Raimund

Girke,

Hendrikse, Franz Mon, Piero Manzoni, Yayoi Kusama, Henk Peeters, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Herman de Vries, and others Printed matter: Invitation Note: Henk Peeters, who is one of the participants and a vital lender to the show, proposes to include Kusama. She sends Peeters works on paper for the exhibition, but it is unclear whether they were exhibited as the works arrive late.

Yayoi Kusama, Li-Yuen-Chia, Dadamaino, Franz Mon, François Morellet, Julio Le Parc, Henk Peeters, Ivan Picelj, Giovanni Pizzo, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Joël Stein, Herman de Vries, Rolf Weber, Yvaral Artworks: Accumulation No. 13, Accumulation No. 15A and Accumulation No. 18A (all 1962). Printed matter: Invitation

Antwerp Gotthard Graubner, Jan Henderikse, Yayoi Kusama, Piero Manzoni, Heinz Mack, Almir Mavignier, Franz Mon, Günther Uecker, Otto Piene, Diter Rot, Herman de Vries, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Jef Verheyen, Rolf Weber Artwork: photo-montage (probably Accumulation of Nets No. 1 (1961) or Accumulation of Nets No. 2 (1962)) Printed matter: Leaflet Note: Peeters organizes the exhibition at the same time as the expositie Nul at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

1962 Galerie Dorekens Yayoi Kusama Opening: October 10, 1962 Initiator: Henk Peeters Artworks: No. 1 A.2 (1960), No. T.W.2 (1960), No. white XXA (1961), No. P.3.B. (1961) Note: shortly after the exhibition grote meesters kleine formaten, at the same gallery, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam agrees to ship the works from the Nul exhibition to the gallery for a solo show. Following various letters from 1965 (!), the gallery does not return the works to the Stedelijk Museum, furthermore, the work No. P.3.B., is lost.

Rotterdam Antwerp 1962 Galerie Dorekens Grote meesters kleine formaten (great masters small formats) Opening: June 16, 1962 Artists: Pierre Alechinsky, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Dadamaino, Gotthard Graubner, Jan

1962 Kunstcentrum 't Venster Anno 62, plastiek grafiek en tekeningen (sculptures, graphics and drawings) Opening: November 3, 1962 Speech: Hans Sleutelaar Artists: Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Kengiro Azuma, Hans Bischoffshausen, Antonio Calderara, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Klaus J. Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Getulio Alviani, Gerhard von Graevenitz, Jan Henderikse, Hsiao-Chin, Vlado Kristl,

Amsterdam 1963 Galerie Amstel 47 Panorama van de nieuwe tendenzen (Panorama of the new tendencies) Opening: May 5, 1963 Curators: Henk Peeters, Willem de Ridder Artists: Getulio Alviani, Armando, Jón Gunnar Arnáson, Bernard Aubertin, Hans Bischoffshausen, Antonio Calderara, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Dadamaino, Lucio Fontana, Jan Henderikse, Yves Klein, Vlado Kristl, Yayoi Kusama, Julio Le Parc, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Christian Megert, François Morellet, Henk Peeters, Giovanno Pizzo, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Francisco Sobrino, Jesús Rafael Soto, Joël Stein, Walter Thorn, Günther Uecker, Herman de Vries, Rolf Weber, Yvaral Printed matter: Poster (design by Henk Peeters)

Amsterdam

Note: the exhibition is the first at the small gallery Amstel 47 in Amsterdam. Due to the limited space, all works shown are small in size. Most of the works come from the collection of Henk Peeters, who is taking over the organization of the opening exhibition together with the artist Willem de Ridder, the gallery director.

Galerie Amstel 47 mikro-nul/zero Opening: August 31, 1964 Artists: Getulio Alviani, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Kilian Breier, Peter Boezewinkel, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Dadamaino, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Raimund Girke, Gotthard Graubner, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, George Rickey, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Peter Struycken, Günther Uecker, Victor Vasarely Printed matter: Poster

Rotterdam 1964 Galerie Delta mikro-nul/zero-nieuw realisme Opening: August 7, 1964 Curator: Henk Peeters Zero Artists: Getulio Alviani, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Peter Boezewinkel, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz- Diez, Dadamaino, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Gott- hard Graubner, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Herbert Oehm, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, George Rickey, Diter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Peter Struycken, Günther Uecker, Victor Vasarely, Jef Verheyen New Realism Artists: Arman, Stanley Brouwn, Michel Cardenas, Christo, Jurjen de Haan, Jan Henderikse, Yves Klein, Roy Lichtenstein, Martial Raysse, Wim T. Schippers, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely Artworks: probably a collage identified as Accumulation (1962) along with macaroni-covered shoes Printed matter: Poster, Booklet (text by Franck Gribling, with an image of a “Net” painting), Invitations

Note: Hans Sonnenberg is the first director of the Orez Gallery. After leaving the gallery, he opens the Delta Gallery in Rotterdam and continues to show artists from the international ZERO movement, including Kusama. He owns several works by Kusama until his death. The exhibition has two sections, artists from the international ZERO movement, and artists united under the flag of the socalled New Realists. The exhibition tours to Velp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in different arrangements and with different invitations and posters. The booklet is made for all three venues, with a focus on the ZERO artists.

Velp Jeugdfestival, Rhedens Lyceum mikro-nul/zero Opening: August 24, 1964

Philadelphia 1964 Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania ZERO. An Exhibition of European Experimental Art Opening: October 30, 1964 Curator: Otto Piene Artists: Armando, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Hermann Goepfert, Gotthard Graubner, Hans Haacke, John Hoyland, Oskar Holweck, Robert Indiana, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Francesco Lo Savio, Adolf Luther, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Hans Salentin, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Ferdinand Spindel, Jean Tinguely, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo Artworks: “Net” paintings The West

(1960), Green No. 1 (1961), and No. T.W 3 (1960), and a large relief made of egg cartons No. B. 3 (1962) Printed matter: Poster (design by Robert Indiana), Catalog Note: the exhibition, organized by Otto Piene, is one of the first exhibitions in the USA that focuses on the European avant-garde, and is subsequently shown in Washington.

Opening: January 16, 1965 Organizer: Christian Megert Artists: Marc Adrian, Getulio Alviani, Giovanni Anceschi, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Ay-O, Hermann Bartels, Hans Bischoffshausen, Agostino Bonalumi, Davide Boriani, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Dadamaino, Gabriele Devecchi, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Mathias Goeritz, Gerhard von Graevenitz, Gotthard Graubner, Hans Haacke, Oskar Holweck, John Hoyland, Ed Kiender, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Indiana, Walter Leblanc, Francesco Lo Savio, Adolf Luther, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, François Morellet, Bruno Munari, Herbert Oehm, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Arnulf Rainer, George Rickey, Dieter Roth, Hans Salentin, Wolfgang Schmidt, Jan Schoonhoven, Turi Simeti, Jesùs Rafael Soto, Ferdinand Spindel, Paul Talman, Jean Tinguely, Günther Uecker, Grazia Varisco, Victor Vasarely, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo, Herman de Vries, and others Printed matter: Poster (design by Peter Megert) Note: in Bern, the gallery of artist Christian Megert exhibits works by around 120 artists from various groupings and movements: New Tendencies, Zero, Nul, Arte Programmata, AntiPeinture, and GRAV, but the focus of the exhibition is on the ZERO artists.

Amsterdam Washington 1965 The Washington Gallery of Modern Art ZERO. An Exhibition of European Experimental Art Opening: January 9, 1965

Bern 1965 Galerie Aktuell Aktuell 65

1965 Galerij De Bezige Bij De nieuwe stijl, werk van de internationale avantgarde (The new style, work of the international avantgarde) Opening: April 18, 1965, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Curator: Henk Peeters Organizer: Internationale Galerij Orez Speech: Wim Beeren, Hans Sleutelaar Artists: Yaacov Agam, Giovanni Anceschi, Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Hans Bischoffshausen, Davide Boriani, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Gianni

Note: the exhibition is organized in conjunction with the Nul65 exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum and includes artists from the same groups. Both shows coincide with the publication of the first issue of De Nieuwe Stijl: Werk van de Internationale Avantgarde, edited by Armando and Henk Peeters. The cover of the magazine features Kusama standing amid her work. Prominently featured in the photograph are a protrusion-covered armchair, probably Accumulation No. 1 (1962), and a large white egg carton relief, probably No. B. 3 (1962). The publication includes texts by Yves Klein, Heinz Mack, Jan Schoonhoven, and Günther Uecker. Yayoi Kusama is included with an interview by Gordon Brown. The exhibition travels to the Internationale Galerij Orez in The Hague.

The Hague 1965 Internationale Galerij Orez De nieuwe stijl, werk van de internationale avantgarde (The new style, work of the international avantgarde) Opening: April 9, 1965

Amsterdam Colombo, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Dadamaino, Gabriele De Vecchi, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Hans Haacke, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Guy Mees, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, George Rickey, Paolo Scheggi, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Ferdinand Spindel, Günther Uecker, Grazia Varisco, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo Artworks: as the gallery is a small room upstairs, possibly only small works are shown. Printed matter: Poster, Invitation, Pocket-book (design by Henk Peeters, with two images of Kusama in the studio)

1965 Stedelijk Museum Nul negentienhonderd vijf en zestig (Nul nineteen sixty-five) Opening: April 15, 1965, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Curators: Henk Peeters, Ad Petersen, Martin Visser Artists: Getulio Alviani, Giovanni Anceschi, Arman, Armando, Davide Boriani, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Gabriele De Vecchi, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Hans Haacke, Akira Kanayama, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Sadamasa Motonaga, Saburo Murakami, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, George Rickey, Jan Schoonhoven, Shozo Shimamoto, Jesús Rafael Soto, Atsuko Tanaka, Günther Uecker, Grazia Varisco,

Nanda Vigo, Tsuruko Yamazaki, Jiro Yoshihara, Michio Yoshihara Artwork: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963) Printed matter: Poster, Invitation, Catalog (all designs Wim Crouwel, catalog with an image of a “Net” painting and a photo of Kusama in her studio) Note: Kusama's Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963), listed as Aggregation Rowboat in the catalog, is exhibited in a separate gallery, with black-and-white images of the boat covering the floor and walls. Kusama donates the piece to the museum after the exhibition, as she cannot afford to pay for the return shipping costs. During the installation of her work, she produces a large white plastic canvas, with the material that Peeters uses for his work.

1965–1970

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969 1970

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Venice, Galleria del Cavallino The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Turin, Galleria Il Punto Amsterdam, RAI Stockholm, Moderna Museet Milan, Galleria del Naviglio The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Gelsenkirchen, Halfsmannshof Essen, Galerie Thelen Bern, Kunsthalle Bern Venice, Biennale The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Berlin, Galerie Potsdamer Mönchengladbach, Galerie Jülicher Prague, International Gallery Prague Rotterdam, Galerie Delta Frankfurt, Studio Galerie The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam Eindhoven, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum Cologne, Galerie Hake Enschede, Kunstzaal Markt 17 Loenersloot, Galerie Mickery Frankfurt, Galerie Ursula Lichter Essen, Galerie Thelen Frankfurt, Galerie Ursula Lichter Amsterdam, Kunsthistorisch Instituut The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Underlined = solo

INTERNATIONALE GALERIJ OREZ Caroline de Westenholz*

*Caroline de Westenholz is the stepdaughter of Albert Vogel, one of the owners of the Orez Gallery. She donated Vogel’s papers to The Hague Municipal Archives, and she regularly publishes about the gallery and its artists. In 2016 she wrote and published Higher that Level! A History of International Gallery Orez/Hoger die drempel! Een geschiedenis van Internationale Galerij Orez (1960–1971).

Between 1965 and 1970, Kusama had five exhibitions in Orez International Gallery at 17 Javastraat, The Hague. The gallery represented Kusama in Europe and had a decisive influence on her career on our continent. The developments can easily be followed based on documents in the archive of Albert Vogel, one of the owners of the Orez Gallery.1

Kusama in Europe In Japan, Kusama only gained recognition as an artist in 1983. Her fame in America and Europe was already legendary at that time. But the full history of Kusama’s development on our continent is yet to be written. It is closely linked to Orez International Gallery in The Hague.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

In 1957, Kusama left Japan and settled in New York. She made her name withher “Net” paintings, which were in line with the work of the international ZERO movement. In 1959, German curator Udo Kultermann invited her to participate in the 1960 Monochrome Malerei exhibition in Leverkusen, West Germany. This would show work by well-known artists such as Mark Rothko, but also by lesser known ones including Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni. It was the start of her European career. Henk Peeters only saw the catalog, not the show itself. He began to correspond with Kusama, asking her if she was willing to participate in the exhibitions he was preparing. It was Peeters who introduced her to Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon, the joint owners of Orez International Gallery. On February 17, 1965, Orez sent Kusama a letter requesting her to submit work for a show in the Amsterdam Bij Galerij,2 which was situated in the offices of the Bezige Bij publishers. Orez had organized this exhibition to mark the launch of a new publication: the first installment of the magazine de nieuwe stijl (The New Style). This featured work by the international avant-garde. The magazine was edited by Armando, Henk Peeters, Hans Sleutelaar, Cornelis Christiaan Vaandrager and Hans Verhagen. Kusama participated in the Bij Galerij exhibition and received a place of honor in the first issue of the magazine. Not only did her portrait appear on the front cover, it also contained a Dutch translation of her interview with Gordon Brown,3 which includes the first known report of her hallucinations. de nieuwe stijl was based on the concept of the linguistic “readymade”: the presentation of “found” texts, without any comment. In addition, the magazine focused on “new tendencies” in contemporary art, such as Nul.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

Albert Vogel archive, The Hague Municipal Archive, entry no. 0709–01 (henceforth: AVA). Kusama’s letters; file nos. 1617, 1636, 1670, 1721 and 2221. The archive of Vogel’s partner, Leo Verboon, resides at RKD, the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, but is unfortunately still inaccessible at the time of writing. 2 Letter from Orez International Gallery (henceforth: OIG) signed by Elizabeth Melvill van Carnbee, February 17, 1965. Collection Kusama papers, New York, CICA/YK 3400.24. With thanks to Midori Yamamura. The work had to arrive before March 15. 3 Gordon Brown was chief editor of

Art Voice, for WABC Radio (1963). “Miss Yayoi Kusama,” in De nieuwe stijl. Werk van de internatonale avantgarde, The Hague/Rotterdam 1965, vol. 1, p. 48–53.

Aspects of contemporary eroticism A stencil with an overview of the history of Orez International Gallery announces: “Around 1965, an international tendency to eliminate taboos around the relationship between sex and society can be discerned. Renewed interest in the writings of De Sade leads artists to integrate eroticism into their work. The first international exhibition of contemporary eroticism already takes place at Orez in May 1965.”1 This new international tendency soon led Orez to the organization of annual exhibitions on the theme of “Aspects of Contemporary Eroticism.” The first one opened on May 18, 1965, just after the start of the Nul 1965 Stedelijk Museum show. The invitation lists the names of participants: “yoyoi kusama [sic] with a one-man show in the front room and further woody van amen, michel cardena, jurriaan de rooster, nol kroes, kudo, lotti, henk peeters, uwe jens serger, hans spesshardt, ferdinand spindel, celestino valanti and gerard verdijk.”2

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. In the “zipper’ installation by Michel Cardena. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

The petit Japanese woman arrived in The Hague with a portfolio full of gouaches from the 1950s. Verboon and Vogel rented a studio for her and provided her with a sewing machine, some cans of spray paint and a number of objects to work on: a shirt, a pair of discarded trousers, numerous old shoes, a briefcase and an odd number of boards. Kusama set to work. As Betty van Garrel put it: “The coral-like protrusions with which she tends to cover her objects and which most viewers consider to look like phalluses, are stitched on a sewing machine, one by one, by the artist herself. Mirrors, rowing boats, tables, chairs and shoes, everything is covered with tentacles and then monochromatically sprayed white or gold.”3 Kusama created her sex and food obsessions in situ in The Hague. She indeed covered all the said objects with stuffed cotton protuberances, or with machine-produced pasta shapes. Next, she sprayed them. Reason for the food obsession was: “because appetite is related to the need for sex,” according to this same source. The show in Orez’s front room contained about fifteen of her works. Reviews mention a chair, a hat, a handbag, shoes, bottles and wall objects covered with “phallic symbols,” and a silver colored macaroni shirt.4 With Aspects of contemporary eroticism, Orez achieved exactly what the two directors had hoped for: great publicity and huge interest. The vernissage was so crowded that “the audience had to behave like acrobats in order not to spill their drinks.” But not everything went smoothly. A shocked visitor alerted the local vice squad. After that, the exhibition was accessible to people over eighteen only. The public had to ring the bell in order to gain access to the gallery.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

All the local and national papers reported on the exhibition, and specifically on Kusama’s work. It caused quite a commotion. “We can distinguish two directions in her work: an obsession with Eros and one with food,” Het Parool remarked dryly. “The experienced spectator will easily recognize the first drive. The eating obsession is less evident. However, in the case of a pair of macaroni covered underpants, a transition between both obsessions could be discerned.”5 On May 24, Het Vaderland wrote that these “eruptions” were more a matter for the psychiatrist than for the art critic: “Pity, because given the white boat in the Stedelijk Museum, this Kusama does seem to have some talent, but a whole room of this kind of stuff is just boring.”6 Two days later, the Haagsche Courant observed dryly that eroticism and estheticism were decidedly different things.7 With some delay, the news about the exhibition even found its way into the American press: “For some reason, an exhibit in The Hague was banned to

anyone under eighteen,” the Sunday News reported. Kusama didn’t help the journalist out. “Holland is a very conservative country,” was her only explanation.8 Of course she knew better than that.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965, with Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

Aspects of contemporary eroticism helped Orez to make its first modest profit. Dutch collector Frits Becht purchased six Kusamas9 and this initial success prompted the owners of Orez to offer the artist a contract, on May 10, 1965. Orez became Kusama’s exclusive representative in the Netherlands and Europe. The gallery made a commitment to organize exhibitions of her work at home and abroad and to handle her PR. The gallery would receive 50% of the sale price and become the owner of all the work created in situ in May 1965, by way of compensation for the expenses incurred. This agreement would basically last for two years.10 Moreover, Kusama committed herself to come over to Holland for a couple of weeks every year from then on, in order to make art for Orez.11 When the exhibition was over, Kusama returned to New York. Albert and Liesje Vogel paid for her ticket. Vogel had a soft spot for the little Japanese monkey, as he affectionately called her (she wore a jet-black gorilla fur jacket at the time). According to their correspondence of July 5th 1965, Vogel also financed her first trip to Paris: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Vogel: Your help in regard to my one-man show in Holland was terrific! Thank you very much. I owe everything to your kindness. My trip to Europe was extremely important to me and to my future in the art world. I went to Paris and believe that I made valuable contacts with two or three dealers. Perhaps, next spring, I will have a one-man show in Paris.12 I must go back to Europe in November for a one-man show at Milan. Perhaps I can see you at that time. I got back to New York because of your help with the ticket. Also, I am so glad I could go to Paris because of you. I should have written you sooner; but I had many things to do when I came back. Please give my warmest regards to Elizabeth and Leo. I am very much indebted to them.13 If you find any articles about me, appearing in Dutch publications after I left, please send them to me. Sincerely yours, Kusama14 Apparently, Vogel was prepared to invest in Kusama. But the most remarkable consequence of this liaison had to be proven by time. Yayoi Kusama’s May 1965 exhibition at Orez International Gallery has gone down in art history as Kusama’s “first European one-woman show.”15

AVA, inv. no. 1660. AVA, inv. no. 1611. 3 Betty van Garrel, “De bandeloze liefde van Yayoi Kusama” Haagse Post, November 11, 1967. 4 According to Aad van der Mijn, “Toegang boven de achttien. Wegwijzer langs de ‘Facetten van de hedendaagse erotiek,’” Het Parool, May 21, 1965. See also “Sex-bom,” Haagsche Courant, May 26, 1965 5 See note 8. 2

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

L. Roest, “Uit de Haagse kunstzalen. Modieus erotisch,” Het Vaderland, May 24, 1965. 7 “Sex-bom,” Haagsche Courant, May 26, 1965. 8 Sunday News, August 13, 1967. Press cutting that remained behind in Orez, private collection. 9 These were: Airmail Accumulation (1961), Untitled (1961; a collage), Coca Cola bottle, Red Stripes, Chair and Blue Spots (all four: 1965). See R. H.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1965. Photo by Marianne Dommisse

Het Parool, May 21, 1965

Fuchs (ed.), Collectie Becht. Beeldende kunst uit de verzameling van Agnes en Frits Becht. The Becht collection/Visual Art from the Agnes and Frits Becht Collection, Weesp and Amsterdam 1984, catalog numbers 295–300 (p. 230). 10 Contract, May 10, 1965, CICA/YK/3400/32. With thanks to Midori Yamamura. 11 A. Wagenaar, “De huid van Jan Schoonhoven als schilderslinnen. Yayoi Kusama en de blote mannen,” Vrij Nederland, December 2, 1967, p. 15. 12 Considering the interview published in De nieuwe stijl, this was Kusama’s first trip to Paris. See also: “I also heard, that Albert had to pay your trip to Paris as well as other things.” Letter from Leo Verboon to Yayoi Kusama, AVA, file no. 1636, also in CICA/YK/3900.31. 13 Gallery assistant Elizabeth (Isa) Melvill van Carnbee.

Letter from Yayoi Kusama to Albert and Liesje Vogel, July 5, 1965, AVA, file no. 1636. 15 See Laura Hoptman, “Down to Zero. Yayoi Kusama and the European ‘New Tendency,’” in Laura Hoptman, Akira Tatehata and Alexandra Munroe, Love Forever. Yayoi Kusama 1958–1968, catalog exhibitions Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Japan Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998–1999, note 4.

ZERO on Sea

Invitation to the artists, signed by Albert Vogel, Leo Verboon, Armando, Henk Peeters, and Hans Sleutelaar

In September 1965, a spectacular project entitled ZERO on Sea was set to take off on Scheveningen pier. Scheveningen is The Hague’s seaside resort. It was the brainchild of Henk Peeters. Reinder Zwolsman, owner of Exploitatie Maatschappij Scheveningen, needed some publicity. ZERO on Sea seemed to be just the thing he was willing to invest in. It was meant to become the ultimate apotheosis of the new, revolutionary ZERO movement in the arts. On the pier, art and exhibition space would merge into one gigantic anonymous “Gesamtkunstwerk.” The project would last three weeks. Participating artists were George Ricky and Yayoi Kusama from New York, Hans Haacke, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker from Germany, Jiro Yoshihara and his colleagues from the Japanese Gutai group, the Italians Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Nanda Vigo and Lucio Fontana, and the Dutch Nul group, consisting of Armando, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters and Jan Schoonhoven. Yayoi Kusama’s plans The preparations for ZERO on Sea can be closely followed on the basis of Orez’s correspondence with Yayoi Kusama. The first time that Kusama heard about the project must have been via a letter from Leo Verboon of July 2, 1965. Dear Yayoi […] Towards the end of September, on the pier of Scheveningen there is going to be a huge Zero/Nul manifestation. This will be something fantastic. We are therefore also doing our best to get you included in the show. […] Friendly greetings from us all. International Gallery Orez (L.J. Verboon)1 For ZERO on Sea, Yayoi Kusama initially wanted to decorate a 30-m-long corridor with her phallic objects.2 Eventually, however, she suggested to make a peep show. Kusama’s first peep show opened in the New York Castellani Gallery on March 16, 1966. It consisted of a mirror-lined hexagonal room. The ceiling was embedded with small red, white, blue and green bulbs, flashing on and off in sequence. Viewers looked into the room through a peep hole. Music by the Beatles was played during the vernissage, and Kusama distributed “Love Forever” buttons to visitors. The actual title of the show was Love Forever.

Announcement of ZERO on Sea in Het Vaderland, August 4, 1965

Photo-montage by Henk Peeters for ZERO on Sea, with works by Gianni Colombo, Heinz Mack, Hans Haacke, 1965, collection 0-archive

In February 1966, Kusama received a letter from Orez, courtesy of Naviglio Gallery in Milan, wishing her every success with her exhibition there and urging her to come and visit Scheveningen pier “as soon as possible.” She was very welcome and would be the guest of Orez.3 This was followed by another letter less than a week later, telling her the show will now open on April 15th. Preparations for the pier projects were scheduled to last no more than a fortnight, and Kusama was requested to tell the gallery how much time she thought she needed for hers. For each working day, the artist would receive fifty guilders; travel costs would be paid in advance, hotel accommodation and meals would all be provided for.4 From New York, Kusama thanked Albert and Leo for the letters she received in Milan and New York and apologized for not having written before. She was very busy: “After Milano I had a ticket to go to Düsseldorf, where Dr. Udo Kultermann planned to have a one-man show for me, and also Holland your coun-

try, London to the Grosvenor Gallery, and Paris, but my one-man show in New York is scheduled for March 15. It will be a kinetic show, the same that I hope to do in your country.”5 Kusama continued to describe her plans for the peep show on the pier. She had mirrors in New York, but it didn’t seem practical to send them to Holland; it would cost less to buy new ones there. Her electrician would send all the technical details. The cost factor was a problem: “I would like to know if you cannot afford the entire cost, how much money would be available for me because we must discuss this matter and find most economical way to produce this idea.”6 She talked about the Castellani Gallery peep show that was about to start:

Peep Show, Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1966. Photo by Hall Reiff, collection Yayoi Kusama Studio

After I did this floor show, now I am making ceiling show with electric lights and music as I explained in the sketch I sent to you. The mirrors on the wall will be spaced slightly apart to allow heat to escape from the hexagon and to allow people to peep into the room. I am going to call this the ‘Peep Show’ because people will look from the outside into the space where the lights will be reflected in the mirrors. After the people have peeped into the space they can come into the room and will be overwhelmed with light. This image will be a fantastic sensation in this exhibition.7 This letter was followed by a note describing all the materials to be used and the associated costs. Her next letter mentioned a registered mail item that was sent the day before. Now Kusama went into more detail regarding her needs for the pier project. Just like in the Castellani exhibition, she wanted to play Beatles music and so she needed a tape recorder. She also wanted buttons with the text LOVE FOREVER: I think it will be less expensive to have the buttons made here, but I will need some money from you, about $20, to have 1000 made. I will bring them with me when I come.8 On March 23rd, Kusama reported in a handwritten letter about the Castellani exhibition. The second page of this letter, which contains a sketch of the planned peep show, was initially reproduced in Forum Magazine9 and since around the world. The first page is much less known: Dear Albert and Leo, My show is on and many people were shocked. Museum directors came and said it was the best show this year. My hexagonal mirror room, illuminated by electric bulbs was spectacular and fantastic, according to visitors. The In stitute of Contemporary Art of Boston is borrowing my exhibit.

Peep Show, Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1966. Photo by Hall Reiff, collection Yayoi Kusama Studio

This posed a problem in regard to the pier project: I promised I would bring the material to Holland after my show was over. Now I need the bulbs and sockets for Boston, but I will bring the control motor to Holland because it was specially made here for my show and would be difficult to duplicate in Holland. Can you buy bulbs and wires for me in Holland? It will not be expensive. The bulbs are yellow, blue, green and red. I have a drawing made by an electrician showing how the wiring is ar ranged. I will send you samples of the bulbs and sockets by airmail tomor row. Four photos of this “control motor” were included in Kusama’s correspondence with Orez: Can you get an electrician for me when I come to Holland? Since I will be in

Holland only ten days before the opening, please have the material and the electrician ready for me when I come. I need a tape recorder. I will bring tapes of Beatles music. At my show I gave visitors a button reading ‘LOVE FOREVER Kusama.’ Please make 1000 but tons like the sample I am sending, but of course the words in Dutch. I hear that the exhibition will be permanent so please buy the mirrors. I will send you the measurements tomorrow. I shall also send a photo. Thus, you will understand how to make it with the help of a carpenter. Please send me an airplane ticket as soon as possible.10 The accompanying sketch shows that there are some differences with the Castellani peep show. In the pier project, the text on the buttons should be in Dutch. The ceiling lights should form the words “Love” and “Sex.” There should be two peep holes, not one only. Lastly, the public should be allowed to go inside.

Peep Show, Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1966. Photo by Peter Moore, collection Yayoi Kusama Studio

The end of ZERO on Sea Unfortunately, the ZERO on Sea project was never executed. From the outset, it was questionable whether the high flying constructions of the international ZERO artists would be able to withstand the harsh Dutch climate; in early April 1966, storms ravaged the North Sea coast. No insurance against possible claims in case of damage could be obtained. Apparently, Kusama received the bad news in a telegram of March 25th, which has not survived. This was followed by a letter from Leo Verboon explaining all the reasons for the cancellation, adding the fact that some projects were extremely expensive to set up, and would require a disproportional part of the budget. Orez considered this would not be fair to other artists: A manifestation such as Zero-on-Sea is incomplete without them, and the artistic potency of the whole show would be ruined. Alas, Gallery Orez could not come to terms with the business organization on this point. After that it was decided, for the time being, not to go through with any of the plans. We are fully aware that this course of events is very disappointing for you, but we hope that under the circumstances you will understand our position. Starting on April the 15th, plans and designs from Zero-on-Sea will be exhibited in our Gallery. The Dutch television will make a recording.11 On Wednesday April 6th, Verboon sent Kusama a letter informing her that a ticket had been booked for her to arrive at Schiphol airport at 9.45 one week later. Henk Peeters would pick her up. Verboon announces: In Holland you will be taking part in a big television show about Zero. After that you will go to Essen for your one-man show. We are paying for this, because we are trusting that you will make some works of art for us, as compensation. Your ‘Stay’ in Holland will also be paid for by us. I am looking forward to seeing you again, we are making a lot of publicity for you; you are becoming famous over here.12 The “big television show” was meant to advertise the ZERO on Sea project, but now it just served to announce its cancellation. It was broadcast on April 18th, 1966 and it concerned the program Uit Bellevue. Directed by Yayoi Kusama and Henk Peeters, journalist Joop van Tijn interviewed a couple of Zero artists in German and in English.13

Sketch of the planned peepshow, as published in the Forum magazine, 1967, collection 0-archive

In the meantime, an exhibition of designs for ZERO on Sea had been set up in Orez. The exhibition would last from April 15 to May 4, 1966 and it was organized by Henk Peeters, with two letters, a sketch and three photos of Kusama.

Photo and contact-sheet by Peter Moore of the Floor Show, collection Orez/Vogel Archive, The Hague

Letter from Leo Verboon to Yayoi Kusama, July 2, 1965, AVA, file no. 1636. Also in CICA/YK/3900.31. 2 According to various newspaper clippings, AVA, file no. 1614. 3 Letter from OIG to Yayoi Kusama, February 11, 1966, CICA/YK.3900.32. 4 Letter from OIG to Yayoi Kusama, February 16, 1966, signed by Leo Verboon and Albert Vogel CICA/YK/ 3900.34. 5 Letter from Yayoi Kusama to Orez, February 25, 1966, CICA/YK 3900–09. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Letter from Yayoi Kusama to OIG, March 23, 1966, AVA, file no. 1636. 9 “Forum voor architectuur en daarmee verbonden kunsten,” June 20, 1967.

Op. cit. note 27. Letter from OIG to Yayoi Kusama, April 3, 1966, signed by Leo Verboon, CICA/YK/3900.36. 12 Letter from OIG to Yayoi Kusama, dd. April 6, 1966, CICA/YK/3900.37. 13 According to the written sources: “8.55 Uit Bellevue,” Televisier, April 19, 1966; “Werken van Nulgroep op scherm,” Brabants Nieuwsblad, April 18, 1966; “Zero-Nul géén kunst,” De Tijd, April 19, 1966 and untitled in NRC, April 19, 1966. 11

Correspondence collection Orez/Vogel Archive, The Hague

Technical drawing collection Orez/Vogel Archive, The Hague

Correspondence collection Orez/Vogel Archive, The Hague

Kusama’s Polka Dot Love Room 1967 was the first year of Kusama’s happenings. The first one took place at the New York Black Gate Theater in June, in the form of a film called Self-Obliteration or Audio-visual-light Performance, which she made together with Yud Yalkut. The essential element here was the theme of the polka dot. “Polka dots refer to the sun and the moon and the earth, which is but a dot in the universe,” Kusama wrote. In the film, which was partly shot at the 1967 Woodstock festival, she sticks polka dots on plants, animals, humans and eventually walks into a pond, covered with floating polka dots. Here, self-obliteration literally means merging into oblivion (as in the Buddhist Nirvana) or, becoming one with the universe. The human soul was also just a dot in the universe, according to Kusama.1 In the summer of 1967, the artist went out into the City of New York. She painted polka dots on rolls of paper and on the bodies of bikini-clad volunteers in Tompkins and Washington Squares. Her performances caused quite a commotion. Even though her victims were not totally nude, the police got involved.2 Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

From November 4 to December 15, 1967, Yayoi Kusama had another exhibition in Orez. This became the Polka Dot Love Room, which she created in the back room of the gallery. In the front room, Jan Schoonhoven had a solo exhibition. The point of departure for Kusama’s new installation was five shop-window dummies; as usual, she found her inspiration on the spot, and was put to work in a rented studio by Vogel and Verboon. She painted the mannequins in fluorescent paint: three red, one green and one yellow. Next, she covered them with fluorescent polka dots in various sizes. They were placed with their legs spread and their arms raised in the middle of the gallery. The walls, the floor and Kusama herself were also covered in red, green, yellow and white polka dots. The French windows at the back of Orez Gallery had literally been blacked out. The installation was lit with “black” light, which made the fluorescent dots glow against their background. Theo van Houts was the first of three photographers to portray Kusama, in her kimono, painting the mannequins. Shortly after Van Houts, Harrie Verstappen and Pieter Boersma photographed her among the mannequins and outdoors, in her red body stocking. Until now, only the photos of Kusama’s favorite photographer, Harrie Verstappen, have been published.

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Pieter Boersma

Kusama seems to dance with her creations. She drapes toilet paper around the neck of one of the dolls: she hugs another one, tentatively comparing her own rich jet-black hair with the short sixties wig of the mannequin; she opens a black and white umbrella, also covered in dots, to the spectator, as if to protect herself against an imaginary rain of dots. 1

See Yoshimoto, “Into Performance; Japanese Women Artists in New York,” New Brunswick, New Jersey & London 2005, p. 45–77. 2 See Lyn Zelevansky, “Driving Image,” in Laura Hoptman, Akira Tatehata and Alexandra Munroe, Love Forever. Yayoi Kusama 1958–1968, catalog exhibitions Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Japan Foundation and the Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Museum of Modern Art, New York 1998–1999, p. 10–41.

YAYOI KUSAMA / Love Forever, TIQ magazine No. 14, January, 1968

Reconstruction of the Love Forever installation, Gemeente Museum, The Hague, 2013. Photo by Tijs Visser

Yayoi—a petite Japanese girl who lives in New York—has been in the Netherlands for just two months. She has caused quite a stir here: because painter Jan Schoonhoven undressed in the Schiedam Museum to be painted by her, the museum director is about to be fired. When that happens, Yayoi says, she will paint naked people in all the churches in the Netherlands, so that the police will close the churches. After all, Christ was also naked when he died on the cross—is nakedness something to be ashamed of? Yayoi paints bodies because, as she once wrote in a manifesto, “War is everywhere. We have forgotten the beauty of our bodies. Why are we so ashamed and repentant? The naked body is all we have. We all want to have love in our togetherness now […] We all need pleasure in our eternal now. Our painted bodies reflect the psychedelic colors and will continue to hold them. We are only lonely spirits of light in our trip through the happening of life.” “Nude is very important to me. I have only been working with that discovery since 1962. That is because in recent

years the pill has released the women. It is now the woman who chooses. Everyone takes everyone (Coca-Cola sex); that’s how it should be.” For example, Yayoi also wants to hold a happening in Auschwitz, where people were killed like animals in the gas chambers. To make up for that, we have to make people beautiful there, so that they will no longer go to war. Yayoi uses dots for this because following a dot is the symbol of love and freedom. A child who has measles, with his entire body covered by dots, does not have to go to school and is spoiled by the mother. A dot is also a symbol of communication, infinite, beginning and end always meet. There are also no corners that you can bump into. That is why a dot is the symbol of the universe, of peace. For example, Yayoi has also edited a photo her way, especially for TIQ, which she loves—(“really way out. There is no such thing in New York”). (See page left). In New York, Yayoi often holds happenings with the dance and music group Group Of Image, to which she invites her audience to become one with their environment. She also tried that at Flight in Utrecht, but the jazz group Relax, with which she performed, was shocked and ended it. As Yayoi says: “Relax is anti-hippie.” In the same vein, she made a film in color of about 45 minutes, which may soon be seen in the Netherlands.

Yayoi does not smoke, does not drink, does not use marijuana, does not use drugs (because her mind is constantly in a drug state), does not serve any god, does not have a friend, does not serve a husband. Her friends are either gay or married (so safe). Nevertheless, she also counts Jan Cremer among those friends, who she says will make it in the U.S.A. because he is very talented. Many newspapers have written about Yayoi that she is so complicated that no museum wants to have an exposition of her anymore. It is not true, but it isn’t easy. Yayoi wants to eat western food in a Chinese restaurant and Chinese food in a western restaurant. When they finally bring it, Yayoi is not hungry anymore. “Yayoi is sweet, nice,” she puts it into perspective. The museum stunts lift her for a moment from the difficulties that can be captured in one word: infinity and the driving urge in herself to make the image of that infinite repetition visible in herself. Finally, Yayoi herself: “It is a constant desire and escape to all kinds of feelings and visions until the end of my life, whether I like it or not. I cannot stop living and yet I cannot escape death.”

Balans Art Fair

Kusama’s studio in The Hague, 1967. Photo by Herbert Behrens

Also in November 1967, Orez curated a show in the Balans Art Fair in Schiedam’s Stedelijk Museum, a former chapel of the local old folks’ home. The gallery exhibited works by Yayoi Kusama, Jan Schoonhoven, Hans Spesshardt, Bob Stanley and Gerard Verdijk. Kusama was represented by a gold and a silver Phallic Girl (mannequins, covered with cotton phalluses and sprayed in gold and silver paint); eight pairs of phallic shoes and Phallic Bottle Tray on an elongated table at the center, and a series of Infinity Net paintings on the surrounding walls. The show was again photographed by Harrie Verstappen. 1 The vernissage took place on November 18th and again turned into a Naked Body Festival. At the preview, Kusama asked the director of the museum, Hans Paalman, for permission for a demonstration of “life-painting” [sic] at the opening. A group of dancers led by Dutch choreographer Hans van Maanen had offered themselves as painting material. Leo Verboon assured Paalman that things “would not get out of hand.”2 The dancers, however, did not show up, so Kusama again turned to her colleague Jan Schoonhoven. According to Vrij Nederland of December 2nd he happily agreed: “He stands in front of Yayoi, stark naked and thin as a rake—allows himself to be painted. After a while, the dots on his body make him look like a man who suffers from a tenth-degree form of measles, but he is intensely happy and undergoes the dabbing on his body without any sexual reaction.

Balans Art Fair, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Kusama’s studio in The Hague, 1967. Photo by Herbert Behrens

Eventually, the artist leads him across the stage with one arm raised, like a referee showing a boxer to the public after a victory. Next, Jan Schoonhoven goes and rolls a cigarette in the wings. He watches how Yayoi paints a second (young) man, who chastely keeps his trousers on.”3

Balans Art Fair, Stedelijk Museum, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Naturally, the assembled journalists were in all states of excitement. The gallery’s name was mentioned everywhere. “Orez Gallery didn’t stick to the agreement,” De Schiedammer headlined.4 The respectable The Hague daily Het Vaderland considered the Balans affair “a tasteless gag”; the journalist had left the museum “in disgust.”5 “Orez Gallery, that sells Kusama’s work (… ) surely cannot complain about the way in which it handles its publicity,” Vrij Nederland stated dryly. By this time, the Dutch press in general was wild about Kusama, but they didn’t seem to take her seriously anymore. Simon Carmiggelt, a well-known Amsterdam columnist, reported in one of his “Kronkels” how Kusama had given a demonstration of nude painting in Schiedam, “for centuries the forge of Dutch debauchery.”6 The director of the museum reacted “deliciously,” Carmiggelt continued: he had understood that only the upper body would be painted. “Here we have the problems of modern museum directors in a nutshell!” Panorama weekly wrote disparagingly about the mini-Japanese, “who apparently combines all madness of this century in her person,” and stated that only few would regret that she would leave for New York on the following day.7 Simon Carmiggelt reached the same conclusion.8 Kusama was eccentric. When she once left her trade mark, jet-black, gorilla fur jacket at Schiphol airport, Vogel and Verboon had to move heaven and earth to recover it.9 Also, stories about her eating habits found their way into the press: “Yayoi puts her food obsession into practice: In a Chinese restaurant Yayoi wants western food and in a western restaurant Chinese food. And then they say that Yayoi is difficult. Am I difficult? No, Yayoi is sweet, nice. She likes to talk about herself in the third person.”10

Naked Body Festival, Stedelijk Museum, 1967, with Jan Schoonhoven. Photo by Cor Stutvoet

Photos published in Yayoi Kusama 1967–1970, catalog exhibition MOMA Contemporary, Fukuoka, Japan, April–May 2009. 2 “Rapport over ‘naakte’ man in Sted. Museum. Galerie Orez hield zich niet aan de afspraak,” De Schiedammer, December 9, 1967. In brown scrapbook Orez (1966–1967), Leo Verboon Archive, the Netherlands Institute for Art History (as yet not inventorized). 3 A. Wagenaar, “Yayoi Kusama en de blote mannen,” Vrij Nederland December 2, 1967, p. 15. 4 De Schiedammer, December 9, 1967 5 W. Penders, “Kunstbeurs Balans met smakeloze grol,” Het Vaderland, November 29, 1967. 6 Simon Carmiggelt, “Kronkel,” Het Parool, November 25, 1967. 7 “Het feest der nullen,” Panorama no. 50 (December 16, 1967), p. 16–17

Het Parool, November 29, 1967. Ibid. 10 Rolf Boost, “Yayoi – priesteres van het naakt,” Algemeen Dagblad, November 21, 1967. 9

- Heeft met kunst niets te maken, Het Vrije Volk, November 22, 1967 - Levend naakt, Het Vrije Volk, November 20, 1967 - Naakt schilderen werd notabelen teveel, Algemeen Dagblad, December 2, 1967 - Artiesten uit balans, Algemeen Dagblad, November 2, 1967

After the wild year 1967–1970

After this wild year of 1967, Kusama did not exhibit in Orez for some time. Presumably, the fact that her work wasn’t selling in Holland anymore deterred the two owners of the gallery. Possibly, the negative press drove serious collectors away. Nevertheless, in January 1968, Leo Verboon wrote to Kusama: “With regards to KUSAMA publicity, I can tell you that within a short time a big story about your person will be published in the German periodical PARDON. In the meantime, the Dutch magazine TIQ1 came out with a nice illustrated article.”2 He continued to announce that Orez was arranging a cheap ticket for a trip to Holland for Kusama. Apparently, the gallery had new plans with her. But this trip was canceled because Kusama did something that Verboon considered a breach of contract: “We have learned that you have offered all your former works to Frits Becht without having consulted us about the matter. […] We wonder why you have been so reckless and why you have not discussed this matter with us.”3 This “reckless” act put an end to the relationship between Verboon and Kusama. Verboon wrote her outright that Orez could not do anything for her anymore.4 From that moment onwards, Kusama’s correspondence with Orez was only addressed to Vogel.5 The next letter from Yayoi Kusama in Albert Vogel’s archive is not dated. Considering the content, we may presume it was sent in the year 1968.

Kusama’s studio in New York, 1968. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

Dear Albert, I’m sorry I haven’t written you but I have been very busy. […] I have been very busy here in New York since I came back from Holland last year. I have had many Happenings, shows, and have made a few movies. I have also been writing and publishing books. I have been desiening [sic] fachions [sic] quite a bit of the time. I have had 600 different articles here in the U.S.A. each month. Sterne and London newspapers and also German papers have carried articles about me. Perhaps you saw some in Holland. Recently I had a happening in the third largest theater in New York. 10,000 people saw my four performances. Olympia press and others will publish my book very soon. Japan is publishing my own book which will be made into a movie. In January 22 magazines will have stories about me here in New York includ ing Esquire. Are you coming to New York soon? I haven’t received any l letters from the Orez Gallery in the past year. I left many paintings and sculptures in your gallerey [sic] when I left. I am very anxious to know what is happened there. Please send me a list of whatever of mine is now in your gallery or has been sold. I am awaiting your kind letter soon. If you come to New York please come to my studio as I have a new one and I would like you to see it. Give my warmest regards to Leo and everyone there. I will soon show my movie in Holland theater. I hope you can see it. Sincerely, Yayoi Kusama.6 Clearly, Yayoi was unhappy about the fact that her work didn’t sell anymore in Holland. So was Leo Verboon. Considering this sarcastic remark, he didn’t much care for Kusama anymore: For Europe, we represent the Japanese artist Kusama, who runs fantastically. Yes, who actually buys art?7 He also suggested a reason:

Kusama’s studio in New York, 1968. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

It has occurred to me that art is something terribly serious. If you talk about it in a casual kind of way, people won’t buy. It must have something sacred

and devotional about it, something church-like, if you want to make people actually purchase something. Perhaps we could bring art in a church and the church into the art gallery. Then people can see religion in a broader perspective and art in a more religious one… Kusama’s work was decidedly too playful for the Dutch public at the time. But Albert Vogel was still interested. On April 26, 1969, he wrote: Dear Yayoi, Thank you very much for your letter. I’m sorry I was not able to answer your letter sooner, but I was very busy at the time and we spent our Easter onMallorca. I am very pleased to hear that you are a great success, and that you are also very busy with your happenings and shows. As what Orez concerned. Leo has been very ill, a sort of a little apoplexy of the brain. He feels a bit better now and works at Orez, but most of the time half days. We have rented the whole building now. Business is not going too bad. We have had in Neurenberg, Germany a new Biennale with Jan van Schoonhoven [sic]. I hope I’ll be able to come to New York in the beginning of October. Leo can’t come with me as you can understand. We can talk about your plans and your work. I am very interested in your new work. Yours sincerely Albert Vogel.8 Kusama’s studio in New York, 1968. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

Yayoi replied after the summer, and blamed the gallery for not selling her work: Dear Albert, Thank you so much for your letter. I am very pleased to hear you are coming to visit me. You once talked about having a one-man show in your country. Can we discuss it when I see you? The only problem is that I do not like the publicity I got in your country about my age & other things which are personal and hurt my image very much. I am making many films now in America & I cannot have publicity like that. Especially since I do not make any money at your gallery, I really see no reason to do that again. I still have no information of which of my works sold. It all seems very foolish. At any rate, we can discuss the problem again. You told me long ago that you would help me to stay in London, are you still interested? I would like to go to London immediately, through your gallery. Please, can we discuss this? Can you get any connections for me in London like galleries or studio, you told me you would pay for my living, is that still how you feel? Please send me special delivery if you contact London, long distance. Do you know any artists in London to help me stay there? I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, Kusama.9 The reply to this letter is not known.

Kusama’s studio in New York, 1968. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

TIQ no. 14 (January 1968), p. 12–15, see p. 90–91. 2 Letter from Leo Verboon to Yayoi Kusama, January 29, 1968, CICA/YK/3900.50. 3 Letter from Leo Verboon to Kusama, June 6, 1968, CICA/YK/3400.51. 4 Ibid. 5 Correspondence in AVA, file nos. 1636 and 1721. 6 Undated letter from Yayoi Kusama

to Albert Vogel, AVA file no. 1636. 7 “Voor Europa vertegenwoordigen we de Japanse schilderes Kusama, die loopt fantastisch. Ja, wie kopen er eigenlijk kunst?” Haagse Post, January 8, 1966. 8 Letter from Albert Vogel to Kusama, April 26, 1969. AVA file no. 1636. 9 Letter from Yayoi Kusama to Albert Vogel, September 20, 1969. AVA file no. 1636.

List of the works sold by Frits Becht to Galerie Thelen, 1968, Agnes & Frits Becht Collection

Becht’s container Frits Becht was one of the most prestigious private art collectors in the Netherlands. His Dutch and foreign Pop Art collection has become especially well known. These works have been shown regularly in thematic exhibitions and are included in catalogs all over the world. In 1968, for example, the Van Abbemuseum organized the exhibition Three blind mice; the collections: Visser, Peeters, Becht. It included Becht’s works by Yayoi Kusama. What is not so well known is that Becht also had an art gallery in The Hague, De Posthoorn. In 1959 it was one of the first to organize a Piero Manzoni exhibition, in collaboration with Hans Sonnenberg, the founder of the Dutch Zero group. Becht was not only an important collector; he also supported artists by helping them to sell their artworks.1 The chair at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1968. Photo by Van den Bichelaer

In 1965 Becht bought six of Kusama’s works from the exhibition Facets of contemporary eroticism, organized by the Orez International Gallery. After that, he continued to follow Kusama. In 1967 he attended her performances at the Stedelijk Museum and the Amsterdam Birds Club, together with his wife and his loyal friend Wim Beeren. Kusama’s art hung at his home in Hilversum, where the artist also visited regularly. It even appeared in glossy magazines. In November 1967, when Kusama wrote to Becht that she needed help redeeming a container of her art held in a London customs depot, Becht promised that he would pay for it. And so he came into possession of more than 40 works. Kusama wrote: I told Mr. Burr [?] I gave to Mr. Becht 4 cases of my work […] which is in London. That is Mr. Becht’s cases now […] please take care you must carry to Holland, you are having your collection show at Abbe Museum soon […] show my work […] please help this trouble […] if you take all of my work you can have big show at museum […] at opening time I will come to Abbe Museum […] then I want help your publicity…2

The collection at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1968. Photo by Van den Bichelaer

Until recently, it was rumored that Becht had bought a container of works from Kusama. However, the correspondence between Kusama and Becht regarding the art that was held by customs authorities is in the Becht family archive. This also contains a list of works that Becht sold to Galerie Thelen in Essen. It turned out that Thelen organized a second Kusama exhibition shortly after Becht sold them 39 works. Some of these works had been exhibited previously, on the initiative of Orez Gallery, at Mickery Gallery in Loenersloot. The VPRO television program Open Oog shows which works were exhibited there. Since the works on Becht’s list hardly match those exhibited at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan and at the Thelen Gallery in Essen (both in 1966), it is clear that Kusama had sent a new consignment from New York to London. She was to have an exhibition there, on the recommendation of Renato Cardazzo (Galleria del Naviglio). Customs strikes prevented this from taking place. When she asked Orez to help her and this didn’t happen, she chose to work with Becht, which meant a break with the Orez Gallery…

The chair at the Becht house, published in a (unknown) glossy magazine

See Tijs Visser in Colin Huizing and Tijs Visser (eds.) nul = 0, the dutch zero movement in an international context, 1961–1966, catalog exhibition Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, September 11–January 22. 2012, p.

74–75. 2 Letter to Frits Becht, Agnes & Frits Becht Archive, Amsterdam, managed by Brendan Becht.

Cage/Painting/Women

Cage/Painting/Women, Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

The last exhibition that Yayoi Kusama had in Orez was titled Cage/Painting/ Women. It ran from October 16 to November 7, 1970.1 Kusama’s work hung in the back room of the gallery and a Friesian painter called Harmen Abma exhibited in the front.2 The exhibition featured around fifteen portraits of famous women, such as Juliette Greco, Mata Hari, Irma la Douce (Shirley MacLaine in the 1963 film of that title), Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Sharon Tate, Raquel Welch, and strangely, transvestite Danny la Rue. Four of these paintings were “caged.” They were executed in a pointillistic style, in primary colors, and mounted in deep picture frames, with chicken wire at the front. As of 1968, Kusama had thrown herself into fashion designing, albeit rather eccentric fashion. This was a natural consequence of her happenings. She had founded Kusama Fashion Institute and in 1969 she opened a boutique at 404, Sixth Avenue to sell her designs.3 Of course she also tried to export these activities to Europe. On the evening of the vernissage in Orez, on October 15, 1970, Kusama had a fashion show in which she presented her Nude Look or Moon Fashion: dresses and garments with large round holes in the location of breasts and genitals. The territory they exposed was as little known as that which the astronauts had visited the year before (during the first moon landing on July 20, 1969), she maintained. In this way, the genitals acquired new meaning, according to Kusama in the Haagsche Courant.4 It goes without saying that these holes could be identified with polka dots. Harrie Verstappen’s photos show how the entire gallery on Javastraat is filled with all kinds of robes. In some shots, Albert Vogel and the gallery assistant hold up garments to the photographer. The recently rediscovered photos by Harrie Verstappen reveal that the fashion show was made especially for the purpose of photo documentation. Strangely, this Orez exhibition seems to have gone largely unnoticed in Kusama’s biography. The catalog of Kusama’s 1982 Fuji Television Gallery exhibition mentions it, but dates it incorrectly to 1971, as does Kusama’s website.5

Cage/Painting/Women, Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Cage/Painting/Women, Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1970, with Harrie Verstappen. Photo by Ira Sherwin Moore Cage/Painting/Women, Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Invitation in Henk Peeters’ Archive, the Netherlands Institute for Art History, file no. HaRKD.0643, box 3. “The last exhibition in Orez”: the show organized by Henk Peeters and myself in 1983, took place when the gallery had been renamed “Ornis.” 2 W. Penders, “Galerij Orez,” Het Vaderland, October 27, 1970. 3 See “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration and the Rise of Happenings 1967– 1973,” in Morris 2012, p. 116–117. 4 Dolf Welling, “Yayoi Kusama wil de mensen heerlijk vrij maken,” Haagsche Courant, September 24, 1970. 5 Obsession. Yayoi Kusama, Catalog Exhibition Fuji Television Gallery

show, March 16–April 10, 1982, Tokyo, Japan, no page no. Kusama’s website: http://www.yayoikusama.jp/e/exhibitions/70.html.

EXHIBITIONS 1965–1970 in the context of the international ZERO movement

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Venice 1965 Galleria del Cavallino Zero Avantgarde 1965 Opening: May 4, 1965, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Organizer and curator: Lucio Fontana with Nanda Vigo Artists: Nobuya Abe, Armando, Hans Bischoffshausen, Agostino Bonalumi, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Piero Dorazio, Hermann Goepfert, Hans Haacke, Oskar Holweck, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Adolf Luther, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Christian Megert, Kurt Mees, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Jan Schoonhoven, Turi Simeti, Jesús Rafael Soto, Paul Talman, Erwin Thorn, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo, Herman de Vries Artworks: two chairs with stuffed phallic objects Printed matter: Poster (design Nanda Vigo, with an image of stuffed phallic objects), Leaflet Note: Nanda Vigo drives Kusama from Amsterdam to Milan; she is organizing the touring exhibition ZERO Avantgarde of works by artists from the ZERO circle. After the opening at Fontana’s studio, the show travels in different arrangements to Venice, Turin, Rome, and Brescia. Kusama only participated in Venice and Turin.

The Hague 1965 Internationale Galerij Orez facetten van de hedendaagse erotiek 1 (Facets of contemporary eroticism) Opening: May 18, 1965, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Initiator: Henk Peeters

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Speech: Henk Peeters Artists: Woody van Amen, Michel Cardena, Jurriaan de Haan, Nol Kroes, Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Lotti, Henk Peeters, Uwe Jens Serger, Hans Spesshardt , Ferninand Spindel, Celestino Valanti, Gerard Verdijk Artworks: “food obsession” with shirts, coats, and shoes covered with gold or silver colored macaroni, “sex obsession” with objects covered with polka-dotted and striped protrusions, and “space obsession” with kitchen utensils and bottles covered with nets.

Printed matter: Invitation Note: Kusama produces almost all the works in The Hague with the help of the two gallery owners Leo Verboon and Albert Vogel. The exhibition is a success and a scandal at the same time. The Dutch collector Frits Becht, who was one of the first Piero Manzoni collectors, buys six Kusamas, which gives the gallery reason to offer her a contract. The Internationale Galerij Orez becomes Kusama’s exclusive representative in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. The exhibition in the Orez Gallery counts as Yayoi Kusama’s first European one-person show. The photographer Marianne Dommisse documents Kusama’s stay at the gallery.

Amsterdam 1965 Intercontex fair, RAI Amsterdam, stand nr. 416 Modana N.V. Opening: October 9, 1965 Artists: Yayoi Kusama, Henk Peeters Organizer: Henk Peeters Note: plastic, nylon, latex; the Nul artists need materials they can trans-

formform

form into artworks. Modana, a specialist in new textiles, invites Henk Peeters, who in turn asks Yayoi Kusama, to design the stand for a fair with new industrial products. Peeters sends sketches to Kusama for a large globe made from gloves hanging from a ceiling, with transparent gloves filled with water. Kusama agrees and Peeters, assisted by artists Paul Damsté and Egbert Philips, is responsible for the realization. Peeters reconstructed the globe Flower Chandelier. In 2010 Peeters says; “in fact, it was my idea, but Kusama liked it, so this time I made an artwork for her!” The original globe was sprayed silver, as that worked better with the plastic bags ceiling; the reconstruction uses the pink gloves that Peeters regularly uses in his work.

Stockholm 1965 Moderna Museet Den Inre och den Yttre Rymden (Inner and Outer Space) Opening: December 26, 1965 Curator: Pontus Hulten Artists: Josef Albers, Martin Barré, Olle Bærtling, Max Bill, Robert Breer, Enrico Castellani, Albert Contreras, Piero Dorazio, Lars Englund, Eddie Figge, Sam Francis, Lucio Fontana, Naum Gabo, Kasper Heiberg, Einar Höste, Donald Judd, Akira Kanayama, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Heinz Mack, Kazimir Malevich, Piero Manzoni, Robert Morris, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Eric H. Olson, Otto Piene, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Jean Paul Riopelle, Mark Rothko, Jesús Rafael Soto, Frank Stella, Wladyslaw

Stzeminski, Mark Tobey, Günther Uecker, Georges Vantongerloo, Herman de Vries. Artwork: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963) Printed matter: Poster, Catalog, Invitation Note: Pontus Hulten, together with Harald Szeemann, Willem Sandberg, and Udo Kultermann the most important exhibition makers of the 1960s, provides an overview of the arts, starting with Kazimir Malevich up to the most recent European and American movements, with Kusama’s boat from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum.

ror, and a place setting). Macaroni-covered pieces include a dress, shirt, and handbag.

Piene, George Rickey, Hans Sleutelaar, Alfred Spindel, Günther Uecker, Nanda Vigo, and the Gutai members Artwork: drawings for Peep Show Printed matter: Invitation Note: the artists of ZERO, Nul and Gutai present their project sketches for the initially planned festival, which was canceled for financial and weather-related reasons. Some of the designs would be published in the architecture magazine Forum in June of the following year. The initial plan is to make the entire pier a temporary installation.

Printed matter: Poster (with a photo montage by Kusama, and the interview by Gordon Brown for W.A.B.C radio Note: The exhibition counts as Yayoi Kusama’s first Italian one-person show. Renato Cardazzo of Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio suggests Kusama present a project for an outdoor installation at the 33rd Venice Biennale. Cardazzo arranges a show for Kusama at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. The works from the Naviglio show are first shipped to Galerie Thelen in Essen for another presentation of the Driving Image Show. Some publications wrongly mention that the works were shipped from Milan to London.

Gelsenkirchen

Milan 1966 Galleria del Naviglio Kusama/Driving Image Show Opening: January 26, 1966, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Initiator: Lucio Fontana Artworks: the exhibition includes thirty large sculptures shipped from New York as well as eight new works that Kusama makes during two months working in artist Lucio Fontana’s Milan studio. A macaroni-strewn environment houses polka-dotted mannequins, furniture, and accessories (including books, bottles, a vase, a mir-

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The Hague 1966 Internationale Galerij Orez Zero op zee (Zero on Sea) Opening: April 15, 1966 Curator: Henk Peeters Artists: Armando, Bernard Aubertin, Hans Bischoffshausen, Stanley Brouwn, Gianni Colombo, Lucio Fontana, Hans Haacke, Jan Henderikse, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Heinz Mack, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto

1966 Halfsmannshof Yayoi Kusama/Driving Image Show (in preparation) Period: two weeks in April Initiator: Ferdinand Spindel

Note: to prepare the show at the Thelen gallery, Kusama stays at the artists' colony Halfsmannhof, coordinated by Ferdinand Spindel. Many artists of the ZERO movement exhibit at the Halfsmannshof. In the exhibition space, Kusama installs the works for the Thelen gallery, especially for the German Television (WDR). Photos by an unkown photographer document her stay in Spindel’s studio.

Essen 1966 Galerie Thelen Driving Image Show Opening: April 29, 1966, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama

Initiator: Udo Kultermann Organizer: in collaboration with the Internationale Galerij Orez Artworks: the exhibition includes works from the Driving Image Show in Milan and works created during Kusama's stay at the Halfsmannshof. The show consists of several large Infinity Net paintings on the surrounding walls of the gallery room. Dry macaroni is spread over the floor like a carpet, and female mannequins and a child mannequin stand around a table set. A dressing table, a TV-set, a ladder with shoes, all objects are covered with “net” patterns. Loud music by the Beatles was playing.

Colombo, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ger Deckers, Martin Distel, Piero Dorazio, Angel Duarte, Lucio Fontana, Sam Francis, Karl Gerstner, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Gotthard Graubner, Gerhard von Graevenitz, GRAV, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Oskar Holweck, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Lijn Liliane, Adolf Luther, Heinz Mack, Kazemir Malevitsch, Piero Manzoni, Manfredo Massironi, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Ben Nicholson, Claes Oldenburg, Otto Piene, Markus Raetz, Robert Rauschenberg, Niki de SaintPhalle, Paolo Scheggi, Jan Schoonhoven, Turi Simeti, Jesús Rafael Soto, Ferdinand Spindel, Henryk Stazewski, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Vassilakis Takis, Paul Talman, Jean Tinguely, Luis Tomasello, Günther Uecker, Victor Vasarely, Gabriele de Vecchi, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo, Herman de Vries, Willy Weber, Marcel Wyss, and others Artwork: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963)

Printed matter: Booklet (with a short text by Udo Kultermann and images of Kusama in her New York studio) Note: German television (WDR) is present at the opening to report on the unusual event; Kusama walks through her installation dressed in a Kimono. Astrid Starcken documents the opening, and unknown photographers document the exhibition in color. The exhibition counts as Yayoi Kusama’s first German one-person show.

Venice 1966 33rd Venice Biennale. Opening: June 14, 1966 Artwork: Narcissus Garden Note: During her stay in Milan in late 1965 and early 1966, Kusama plans an outdoor installation for the Biennale. She creates an environmental piece, Narcissus Garden, composed of fifteen hundred mirrored plastic balls strewn across a grassy lawn. Kusama personally sells the spheres at 1,200 lire each as a comment on commercialism in the art world, until her interactive performance is stopped by the Biennale authorities, who object to her selling art in the manner of “hot dogs or ice cream cones” (unattributed quote). Lucio Fontana lends Kusama money to fabricate this installation; in return, Kusama gives him a phallus-covered suitcase. Standing among the spheres, wearing a gold kimono with a red obi, she hands out flyers printed with glowing commentary on her creative abilities by Herbert Read, written for the Driving Image Show at Castellane Gallery, New York.

Bern 1966 Kunsthalle Bern Weiss auf Weiss (White on White) Opening: May, 25, 1966 Curators: Harald Szeemann, Christian Megert Speech: Udo Kultermann Artists: Agam, Joseph Albers, Getulio Alviani, Hans Arp, Marianne Aue, Hermann Bartels, Guido Biasi, Max Bill, Hans Bischoffshausen, Bram Bogart, Agostino Bonalumi, Pol Bury, Antonio Calderara, Enrico Castellani, Gianni

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The Hague

Printed matter: Invitation Note: the exhibition provides an overview of visual art, starting with the Russian Constructivists up to the international ZERO movement, including the Kinetic tendencies.

1966 Internationale Galerij Orez Facetten van nieuwe tendenzen (Facets of new tendencies) Opening: September 3, 1966 Artists: Paul Damsté, Ad Dekker, Kumiko Imanaka, George Kimumanis, Yayoi Kusama, Jan Schoonhoven, Kazuo Shiraga, Ferdinand Spindel, Peter Struycken, Minozu Yoshida, J.C. van der Heijden and others

Rotterdam 1967 Galerie Delta Objecten: Made in U.S.A. Opening: February 10, 1967 Artists: Allan d'Arcangelo, Jimmy Dime, Robert Indiana, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman Artwork: Silver macaroni dress (1964), a chair, possibly the chair sold to Frits Becht Printed matter: Catalog, with a photo of Kusama in her studio Note: the exhibition looks at the New York Pop Art scene. Kusama is the only artist present with an original work.

Berlin 1966 Galerie Potsdamer Total-Realismus (Total realism) Opening: October 23, 1966 Organizer: Internationale Galerij Orez Artists: Michel Cardena, Yayoi Kusama, Hans J. Spesshardt, Gerard Verdijk Artwork: Blue Spots (1965), egg carton relief No. B. 3 (1962), macaroni-covered clothing, and a large phallic sofa. Printed matter: Invitation Note: travels to Prague.

Mönchengladbach 1966 Galerie Jülicher Neue Tendenzen (In Neuen Räumen) (New tendencies (in new rooms)) Opening: December 13, 1966 Artists: Carla Accardi, Bernar Aubertin, Berger, Hans Bischofshausen, Agostino Bonalumi, David Boriani, Michael Buthe, Nino Calos, Enrico Castellani, Siegfried Cremer, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gabriele de Vecchio, Herman De Vries, Equipo 57, Raimund Girke, Hermann Goepfert, Mathias Goeritz, Ewerdt Hilgemann, Jaquet, Jiri Kolar, Yayoi Kusama, Kaspar Lenk, Adolph Luther, Frank Malina, Christian Megert, Bernd Peters, Schmidt Rhen, Turi Simeti, Ferdinand Spindel, Ray Staakman, Van Holt, Nanda Vigo, Willy Weber, Ludwig Wilding

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Artworks: chairs with stuffed phallic objects, on loan from Galerie Thelen in Essen Printed matter: Invitation Note: Adolf Luther was the contact for the gallery.

Frankfurt am Main 1967 Studio Galerie Serielle Formationen (Serial formations) Opening: May 22, 1967 Curators: Peter Roehr, Paul Maenz Organizer: Siegfried Bartels Artists: Carl Andre, Arman, Thomas Bayrle, Hans Breder, Enrico Castellani, Christo, Jan Dibbets, Eberhard Fiebig, Dan Flavin, Raimund Girke, Hermann

Goepfert, Kuno Gonschior, Hans Haacke, Jan Henderikse, Ewerdt Hilgemann, Donald Judd, Jiri Kolar, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Sol LeWitt, Konrad Lueg, Adolf Luther, Piero Manzoni, Agnes Martin, Almir Mavignier, Henk Peeters Larry Poons, Charlotte Posenenske, Markus Raetz, Bridget Riley, Dieter Rot, Jan Schoonhoven, Klaus Staudt, Frank Stella, Paul Talman, Günter Uecker, Victor Vasarely, Herman de Vries, Andy Warhol, Gruppe X, and others Printed matter: Poster, Booklet Note: the exhibition gives an overview of the then developing new trends. Artist Peter Roehr and gallerist Paul Maenz show a remarkable number of Minimal, Conceptual, Pop- and Op-Art artists from Europe and the USA.

the Naked Body Festival in the Love Room; guests undress and are painted with “polka dots” by Kusama. The Dutch television (VPRO) and more than four photo-journalists are invited to report on the festival. But after the owner, Albert Vogel complains that the paint is destroying the floor, Kusama and the guests have to move to Delft to continue the happening. Photos by Harrie Verstappen are published in the magazine TIQ.

Schiedam

The Hague 1967 Internationale Galerij Orez Kusama/Love Room Opening: November 3, 1967 in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Artworks: Simultaneously with the opening of Jan Schoonhoven's solo exhibition in the front room, Yayoi Kusama shows the Polka Dot Love Room in the back of the gallery. Five mannequins painted with fluorescent paint and covered with reflective “polka dots” in various sizes and placed with arms raised so that they seemed to dance. The windows in the room covered with black paper, the room illuminated with “black” (ultraviolet) light so that the fluorescent dots light up Note: after the opening, Kusama starts

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1967 Stedelijk Museum Balans Art Fair Opening: November 18, 1967, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Artists: Yayoi Kusama, Jan Schoonhoven, Hans Spesshardt, Bob Stanley, Gerard Verdijk Artworks: a gold and a silver Phallic Girl, eight pairs of phallic shoes, a phallic presentation sheet with Coca Cola bottles on a table and a series of recent “Net” paintings. Note: Orez Gallery participates in the “Balans Art Fair” at the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam with works by artists represented by the galley. On the opening day of this art fair, Kusama paints on Jan Schoonhoven and others, as part of her Naked Body Festival.

Eindhoven 1968 Stedelijk van Abbemuseum three blind mice: the Visser, Peeters, Becht collections Opening: April 8, 1967

Speech: Wim Beeren Artists: Woody van Amen, Carl Andre, Shusaku Arakawa, Arman, Eduardo Arroyo, Joseph Beuys, Peter Blake, Lee Bontecou, Marcel Broodthaers, Mark Brusse, Toni Burgering, Lourdes Castro, Christo, Bruce Conner, Hanne Darboven, Erik Dietman, Jim Dine, Lars Englund, Riverhead (New York), Lucio Fontana, Jaak Frenken, Piero Gilardi, Daan van Golden, Jurjen De Haan, Jan Hendrikse, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Robert Indiana, Alain Jacquet, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Edward Kienholz, Nicholas Krushenick, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Bruce Lacey, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Piero Manzoni, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Panamarenko, Larry Poons, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Pierre Raynaud, Martial Raysse, James Rosenquist, Mimmo Rotella, Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Wim T. Schippers, Jan Schoonhoven, George Segal, Daniel Spoerri, Frank Stella, Peter Struycken, Takis, Günther Uecker, Carel Visser, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman, Co Westerik and others Artworks: Blue Spots, Red Stripes and a chair (all 1965), from the collection Frits and Agnes Becht Printed matter: Catalog, Poster Note: after Eindhoven, the exhibition opens at the St. Pietersabdij in Ghent (Belgium).

pants, and shoes, as well as kitchen utensils and various reliefs in many colors. The centerpiece is My Flower Bed (1965–66), now in the collection of the Parisian Pompidou, surrounded by many sewn objects, hanging from the ceiling Printed matter: Invitation Note: The Dutch television (VPRO) reports on the exhibition.

who are under contract with the gallery. Paul Damsté is a student of Henk Peeters. Damsté exchanged his work with Kusama and owned three Nets on paper, and macaroni shoes.

Cologne 1968 Galerie Hake Yayoi Kusama/Bilder und Objekte (pictures and objects) Opening: March 22, 1968 Organizer: Internationale Galerij Orez Artworks: phallic objects, including a Phallic Girl, and “Net” paintings Printed matter: Invitation

Enschede 1968 Kunstzaal Enschedese Kunstenaarssocieteit, Markt 17 Kusama / Damsté Opening: April 13, 1968 Organizer: Internationale Galerij Orez Artworks: group of mannequins, previously exhibited at Orez Gallery Printed matter: Invitation (with an image of Kusama with phallic objects from the Infinity Mirror Room) Note: the exhibition shows two artists

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Frankfurt am Main 1968 Galerie Ursula Lichter Yayoi Kusama Opening: October 18, 1968 Printed matter: Leaflet

Loenersloot

Essen

1968 Galerie Mickery Yayoi Kusama, images, with food and sex Opening: June 9, 1968 Organizer: Internationale Galerij Orez, possibly in collaboration with Frits Becht, as he owned various exhibited works Artworks: Kusama shows sculptures made using coats, jackets, dresses,

1969 Galerie Thelen yayoi kusama/obsession, sex obsession, food, obsession Opening: February 1, 1969 Artworks: the exhibition includes the works acquired from Frits Becht Printed matter: Invitation

Goepfert, Kuno Gonschior, Gerhard von Graevenitz, Gotthard Graubner, Oskar Holweck, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Adolp Luther, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Herbert Oehme, Otto Piene, Uli Pohl, Dieter Rot, Hans Salentin, Jan Schoonhoven, Jean Tinguely, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, and others Printed matter: Poster Note: journalist Rogius Kowaleck is one of Germany's strongest promotors of the international ZERO movement, with curated exhibitions, articles in art magazines, and television programs. The exhibition is an homage to Dynamo, an exhibition organized by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene in 1959, and now adding a few more artists.

Schoonhoven, Ferdinand Spindel, Günther Uecker, Nanda Vigo Artworks: two letters, one design drawing and three photos for Peep Show (1966) Printed matter: Catalog Note: Dutch artist and art-historian Franck Gribling organizes the exhibition with correspondence, sketches, concepts, photos for the unrealized project on the pier in Scheveningen.

Frankfurt am Main

The Hague

1969 Galerie Ursula Lichter DynamoZero Opening: Sepember 11, 1969 Curator: Rogius KowaleckArtists: Arman, Bernard Aubertin, Agostino Bonalumi, Pol Bury, Enrico Castellani, Herman de Vries, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Raimund Girke, Hermann

1970 Internationale Galerij Orez Kusama/Cage/Paintings/Women Opening: October 16, 1970, in the presence of Yayoi Kusama Artworks: Upon the suggestion of a Dutch psychiatrist, where Kusama is temporary living and working, she paints fifteen portraits in a pointillist style of internationally renowned women such as Juliette Greco, Mata Hari, Irma la Douce, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor. Four of these portraits are “caged” behind chicken wire Note: the exhibition was never mentioned in Kusama’s CV, nor in exhibition catalogs. On the evening of the opening, Kusama shows her fashion, and Harrie Verstappen documents the exhibition and the outdoor fashion show.

Amsterdam 1970 Kunsthistorisch Instituut, Universiteit van Amsterdam ZERO Onuitgevoerd (unrealized) Opening: April 24, 1970 Curator: Franck Gribling Artists: Bernard Aubertin, Hans Bisschoffshausen, Gianni Colombo, Lucio Fontana, Gutai group, Hans Haacke, Jan Henderikse, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Heinz Mack, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, Jan

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HAPPENINGS 1967–1970

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1967

NAKED BODY FESTIVAL The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Delft, Sociëteit Novum Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Birds Club Utrecht, Jaarbeurshal

1970

FASHION SHOWS Venice, 35rd Venice Biennale Amsterdam, Dam Square Scheveningen, Jurriaan Kokstraat The Hague, Schelpkade The Hague, Internationale Galerij Orez Linschoten, Castle Nieuw Linschoten

Underlined = solo 111

FIRST “NAKED HAPPENING” Caroline de Westenholz

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1967 was the first year of Kusama’s happenings. The first took place on Tompkins and Washington Square in New York and at ZERO artist Otto Piene’s Black Gate Theater. The happenings caused quite a stir. Although her victims had not yet been undressed, the police were involved.

Internationale Gallerij Orez, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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At the end of 1967, Kusama had her first major exhibition in Holland, titled the Polka Dot Love Room, in the back room of the Orez International Gallery. She painted five shop window dummies with orange-red, yellow, and green fluorescent paint. She then covered them with reflective “polka dots” in various sizes. The mannequins were placed wide-legged and with arms raised so that they seemed to dance. However, painting mannequins was not enough for the artist. At the vernissage of the exhibition, on November 3, 1967, Kusama was interviewed by a VPRO TV crew, which happened to be present. The Dutch Institute for Sound and Image has kept a short excerpt of this extraordinary event. Kusama tells us about her film, Self-Obliteration, and about the Infinity Mirror Room in her New York studio, which preceded this Infinity Polka Dot Room, as she then still called it. Tonight there is a happening in this gallery, she says: a first Naked Body Festival. People will be painted and can paint each other and dance.1 At the vernissage, a group of friends of Jan Schoonhoven’s son Jaap,2 were asked to undress, so that the artist could paint them. They obligingly undressed down to their underpants, to the unspeakable delight of the television crew, which diligently registered everything. Leo Verboon put an end to the fun when he saw paint on the hard wood floor of the gallery. It was decided to continue the party in Delft, the hometown of Jan Schoonhoven. Together, the entire company moved on to the student club Novum Jazz. The television crew came along, as did a group of photojournalists. Once there, Kusama again expressed the wish to paint naked people and turned to Jan Schoonhoven: You are now international. You’re the best. I will paint you, she reportedly said.3 Schoonhoven undressed down his socks. Kusama began painting in a concentrated way: circles, dots, sweeps, the word “love” all over his body, private parts included. Other candidates followed suit. Later that evening, the company was submerged in “a tidal wave of decibels” and flashing lights, produced by the light machine of Livinus van de Bundt. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves; the only one who remained unmoved was Yayoi herself. She hardly seemed to notice the people around her. “A lost star in her own show,” said an eyewitness. The events of 3 November 1967 would again make (art) history. In a 1968 interview, Yud Yalkut asked Kusama when she started her series of Naked Happenings. The answer is clear: “On 3 November 1967, in Orez Gallery.”4 This was apparently the first time that she painted completely naked people. Kusama had done something similar in New York, but never with totally nude bodies: In New York I did something like this about five times, in a discotheque. No, not totally naked, America is very difficult with that, puritanical, yes. If Yayoi does it totally naked, Yayoi has to leave the country. This was followed by the assertion that Yayoi has “no boyfriend, no drink, no drug.” The nude was very important, she said. It was a discovery with which she had worked since 1962. Why only these past five years? Yayoi, drinking weak tea: The sexual revolution is coming now. The pill has liberated women. It is now the woman who chooses. Everybody gets everybody else; that would be ideal. No, Yayoi herself does not participate. In New York they already call me a priestess, so I am out of it. Yayoi does not participate. In Het Parool, Kusama said about the painting of naked men: Life is cold, we are all lonely. Our naked body is the only thing we truly possess. We have

forgotten how beautiful it is. […] There is so much hatred and war and cold. So many bodies are being destroyed. I make them beautiful in order to protect them against war, against bullets.5 Jan Schoonhoven, who happened to walk into Orez while this interview was taking place, said laconically that being painted in the nude was “just pleasant to undergo.”

Sociëteit Novum, Delft, 1967, with Jacob Zegveld and Gust Romijn. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Fifty years later, Kusama recalled the Dutch “turmoil” in her autobiography: In October 1967, I staged a performance [...] in Amsterdam. [...] As soon we began to disrobe, the crowd reacted with catcalls and heckling. I reasoned with them, earnestly explaining that the suppression of sex was directly related to war. ‘Which do you think is worse, war or free sex,’ I asked. ‘Do you prefer war?’ The crowd instantly fell silent. I like to think that I could open the eyes of some of the conservative Dutch to the importance of sexual liberation. [...] I stood at the church alter inside the Museum and yelled: let the body painting begin. Just then, a voice in the crowd cried out: the cops are here. Others shouted: don’t be afraid, don’t stop. [...] Unfortunately, however, the incumbents of the church in which the happening took place were forced to resign.6

Sociëteit Novum, Delft, 1967, with Eddy Determeyer. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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VPRO, “Kunstprogramma KPI,” November 16, 1967, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Image. 2 According to Wim Leys, one of the then students, email to author, July 11, 2010. 3 L. van Duinhoven, “Jan Schoonhoven onderscheiden in Sao Paolo. Prijs voor ‘koele kunst,’” Algemeen Dagblad, November 9, 1967. 4 “Yayoi Kusama, Naked Self-Obliteration: Interview with Jud Yalkut, 1968,” in: Laura Hoptman, Akira Tatehata, Udo Kultermann, Yayoi Kusama, ex. cat. Serpentine Gallery, London, January 26–March 19, 2000, p. 110– 112. 5 Ben Dull, “Yayoi in haar Love Room,” Het Parool, November 28, 1967. 6 Infinity Net, the autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, published by Tate Publishing, 2011. Note: in this publication Kusama mixes up dates and places: the quote cannot be related to Amsterdam, probably more to the happeing in Schiedam.

Sociëteit Novum, Delft, 1967, with Jan Schoonhoven. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

PRESS RELEASE Delft, November 6, 1967

In honor of the visual artist Jan J. Schoonhoven (Biennale prize winner Sao Paolo 1967), an art event was held on Friday 3 November at the society of the student association St. Wolbodo in Delft, and which was attended by many prominent figures from the international art world. However, due to the performance of the well-known New York - Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who decoratively painted several people with luminous paint, difficulties arose between the artists present and their guests, on the one hand, and the club board on the other, which resulted in an extraordinarily drastic and unsympathetic behavior by this society board. The direct cause of these disturbances was the student moderator's statement, who described the event as "moral degradation," as various attendees, including Schoonhoven, the Rotterdam sculptor Gust Romijn and a few others, had themselves painted naked by Kusama. An event, which has certainly not caused a sensation in art circles, since this was done many times, in the international art press's presence, by Yves Klein. At the priest's instigation, the society board acted unpleasantly, using crude methods to make further progress of the event impossible. Victims of this sudden intervention were, among others, Ad Peeterse and Wim Beeren of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, who were rudely refused the dear. The director of the Eindhoven Van Abbe museum, Ir. Jean Leering, got no more beer. Academy director Livinus van den Bundt was thrown to the entry with his stroboscopic light effects installation. The V.P.R.O. television crew, directed by Mr. Westenburg, was prevented from recording. Among the attendees, including gallery owners Leo Verboon from The Hague, Albert Vogel (recitation artist), Rotterdam Hans Sonnenberg, artists “This Way” Stanley Brown, Jef van Leeuwen, Gerard Verdijk, K. Schippers, Jacob

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Zekveld, and many others, a great commotion arose when chairman P.M and management chairman J.H. and some board members ordered the music to leave, and for this purpose already started to demolish the sound system. All the more so when a private music license was granted until 4 a.m. for this event, to attend this evening, many guests who had participated in the opening of two Schoonhoven exhibitions in the Haags Gemeentemuseum and the Haagse Galerie Orez earlier in the evening had come to Delft. Unfortunately, they were confronted with an example of narrow-minded art appreciation at its best, and needless to say, this aroused great resentment especially when something like this takes place in a Society like Novum, which has managed to conquer national fame over the years as a bringer of good progressive Jazz. Eddy Determeyer Jazz Novum

Press Release, written by Eddy Determeyer, send by Jazz Novum to the press, collection 0-archive

NEWSPAPERS

It was to be expected that Kusama sowed “turmoil” with her Naked Body Festival. The painting of nudes was prohibited in puritan America, where she avoided being taken into custody. But in the Netherlands it could only create a “buzz.” More than twenty short articles in newspapers mentioned the revocation of the license of the jazz club Novum in Delft or the behavior of the museum director in Schiedam. The major newspapers, however, paid ample attention to these “details” and let Kusama do the talking. While there were critical comments, there was also admiration for her, her art, and her actions.

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front of the painted bellies and thighs with the serenity of a Japanese flower arranger, clutching the brush in her hand. Later in the evening, when the company is immersed in a tidal wave of decibels and flashing light, extracted from a Livinus van der Bundt light machine, she is flirted with and admired, as with a young girl monkey. Youngsters from Delft lift her up, carry her around, put her down and let her dance. Everyone seems to be having fun with her; the only one who remains unmoved is Yayoi herself. She seems to barely see the people around her. A lost star in own show.

The unbridled love of Kusama / Yayoi exhibits panic in The Hague by Betty van Garrel, Haagse Post, November 11, 1967 Friday evening 10.30 pm in the Delft Society “Novum Jazz.” A 1.40 m-tall creature with black hair and black lace stockings that cover the plump legs, uses a brush with almost devout attention. In front of her stands a naked, curlyhaired, ginger adolescent, arms outstretched like Jesus in a passion game. While the brush, dipped in fresh watercolor tones, places round surfaces and lines on his torso, he looks proudly at bystanders. He seems proud and happy, because none other than the Japanese Yayoi Kusama, the famous nouveau realist living in New York, has elevated him and his body to a work of art. Among those present, including gallery owners, collectors and artists, are a number of candidates who wish to receive the same treatment. Zeroist and Sao Paolo Biennale winner Jan Schoonhoven and Rotterdam sculptor Gust Romijn give the Kusama happening a homely touch by keeping their socks on during the painting. Kusama, who can barely keep up with the application, is soon assisted by some of the people who take the brush themselves to paint each other. Yayoi remains remarkably unmoved in the midst of all the activity. She is kneeling in

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Sex revolution At the invitation of The Hague Orez Gallery, which specializes in avant-garde art, she arrived in the Netherlands last week to participate in, among other things, Balans, an exhibition held at the Schiedam Museum, in which a number of Dutch gallery owners present their showpieces. Her arrival was of course accompanied by difficulties. Orez owner Verboon had to sit on the phone for several hours to find the Japanese woman’s “ape jacket,” to which she is very attached, after it was lost at Schiphol. The jacket of long black ape hair was found. The days before her show, which coincided with an opening by Jan Schoonhoven at Orez (he also exhibits at the Haags Gemeentemuseum), she managed to push the audience to the limit with her hard-torealize desires. Verboon: “Yayoi always wants the impossible.” When I arrive, she is busy painting her dolls in a gnome outfit. The rear part of the gallery is covered with a large number of reflective circles, called “dots.” The painted mannequins covered with reflective paint are also provided with “dots.” When the photographer wants to take photos, Yayoi comes up with a plan. She covers herself with “dots” and then covers some bushes in the gallery garden with “dots,” which soon blow away in the wind. With a high-pitched Japanese voice and in completely unintelligible English, she orders those present to bring pins, adhesive tape and “dots.” After 20 minutes, Yayoi can be snapped, with “dots” on the red gnome suit, “dots” in her hair and “dots” in hand, posing with the routine of a fashion model.

Then she walks with small steps to the back room where there is great disorder: dolls, aerosols, “dots” and the sewing machine with which a large part of Yayoi’s oeuvre was created. The coral-like protrusions that she tends to cover her objects with, which most viewers regard as phalluses, are stitched one by one on the sewing machine. Mirrors, rowing boats, tables, chairs and shoes; she covers them with tentacles and then sprays them in monochrome white or gold. With these miraculous objects, she has secured a unique place among the Zeroists and nouveau realists. Her poetic drawings from the fifties count as Zero expressions avant Ia lettre. Lately, she’s been mostly into happenings, like the New York Body Festival, which she talks about like a kid talks about a birthday party. Speaking of herself in the third person, she recounts how she has been cheered on the balcony by thousands of admirers. Her motives for holding such an event, in which—as in Delft—the necessary people were painted, do not sound convincing. “Uman,” as Kusama pronounces “human,” “is experiencing his sex revolution through the invention of the pill. Misery, pain and death are everywhere, people have forgotten the beauty of their own bodies.” Contrary to Yves Klein, who died a few years ago, who covered a number of models with blue paint to make them function as human brushes, Kusama elevates man himself to a work of art. The “uman” who is far from a sexual revolution is Kusama herself. Anyone who

Photo by Gerard Fieret

even approaches her jokingly is fended off with the Kusama slogan “don’t touch me.” The art critics who recognize phallic symbols in her work have an easy job. She never has a lover and prefers to surround herself with homosexuals. At night in bed she dreams of a loved-one and a house full of children. She says she has an obsession with sex and food. She lived out the food obsession in a series of garments that she covered with strings of macaroni. “I chose macaroni because it is mechanized food, it is produced endlessly, and because appetite is linked to the need for sex.” The necessary stories are circulating about Yayoi’s eating habits. In a Chinese restaurant she pre-orders Western out-ofstock dishes. In a Western restaurant she only wants to eat a complicated Chinese dish. If her wishes are met beyond her expectations, she loses all interest. Leo Verboon accompanied by coowner Albert Vogel: “The last time we said ‘Yayoi, we will not leave here before you have eaten everything.’ You just have to treat her like a child. Most gallery people don’t even want to work with her because

Novum Jazz, Delft she’s so tricky. That is why she is not even very successful financially in relation to her reputation. She is a famous artist in the end. Most people don’t dare just say ‘Yayoi, you really can’t.’ We are very happy with her. If she wants something impossible again, I say no, and that’s it.” Yayoi, referred to by the duo VerboonVogel as an alum root, a root that was once attributed with magic or demonic influence, is soon put to work. A possible buyer of a mannequin (price f 2,500) will visit the gallery in the near future. The Japanese woman, who is estimated to be forty, an age that cannot be confirmed because she

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cut her date of birth from her passport— which sometimes causes difficulties at border crossings—goes to work obediently. She walks industriously through the gallery, apparently engaging in chaotic actions. A small Japanese woman, who managed to inspire both Zeroists and nouveau realists with her poetic objects and is adored by all Pop artists living in New York. Someone who has understood her time in art history and says that she does not understand anything about ordinary daily life. In bed she dreams of an “endless love” that she shaped in her “endless love room,” built with lights and mirrors that suggest a great space and in which a portrait of her hangs. “Yayoi is somewhere in the room, a spectator who does not participate. Yayoi will not experience it herself.” She energetically and inventively plunges into work every day, which she says makes her unhappy. “My biggest problem is my lack of vitality since childhood.”

Yayoi—priestess of the nude / THE INSULATED OBSESSIONS OF A JAPANESE CREATURE BROKE LOOSE IN SCHIEDAM, by Rolf Boost, Algemeen Dagblad, November 21, 1967 Saturday afternoon art-loving Rijnmonders explicitly know who Yayoi Kusama is. It happened during the opening of the exhibition Balance in the Schiedam Municipal Museum. In the fascinating tumult of light artist Livinus van de Bundt, Yayoi—for the hundred surviving interested parties—unexpectedly started a living painting. The Delft painter Jan Schoonhoven, who recently exhibited in Sao Paolo, was simultaneously the model and linen, who undressed first. Questions in the Schiedam Council give an idea of the shock. This was not entirely unexpected for museum director Paalman. He says, “To some extent, on Friday, an oral agreement was made that a few dancers would be painted when the opening was completely over; only the torso, that is. I am not a moral apostle, but it had to be within reasonable limits. I thought it fit in the whole. Maybe I consented somewhat unsuspectingly.” It is certain that an excited guard arrived to inform the museum director, who was on his way at the time, that Schoonhoven has undressed.

work is clear. Yayoi Kusama is a sex maniac; she says it herself.

Schiedam, photo by Herbert Behrens Mr. Paalman: “I thought: What now! If I jumped in to stop the case, it would have completely broken down. I discussed with the technical people whether we could do anything with the light. Before that, we were already fifteen minutes, twenty minutes further. I can’t stop a happening, but I regret it.” The second For Yayoi Kusama—a Japanese woman of indefinite age living in America, the happening in Schiedam is not an incident, but a necessary part of her work. In Schiedam she made her second Dutch “nude” painting. A few weeks ago, for such an activity on her part, the police imposed sanctions on the Delft student society Novum Jazz. Her representative in Europe is the Orez art gallery in The Hague, owned by the nomination artist Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon. Her contract states that she must work in the Netherlands for a few weeks every year. She is doing that for the third time this year. “A hell” Leo Verboon: “I have been working with her for about three and a half years now, but it is not undivided pleasure. It’s often hell, because Kusama is so incredibly difficult, hard to bear, yes. Very sweet at times, a child who picks flowers.” Yayoi appears 45 minutes later than intended: an unbalancing confrontation with a creature 1.40 meters-tall. Long black hair, kindly reserved and outwardly unmoved by the excited reactions to her unusual activities. Her talking has a wonderful resemblance to her work: busy and monotonous. There is also a notable difference: she speaks quite unintelligibly (Verboon: “She can’t say r”) while the symbolism of her

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Symbols Yayoi has a unique place between the new realists and the zeroists. The accumulation of many similar elements is the only concept in the numerous styles tried and tested by her. Paintings with the blackest backgrounds, full of red or yellow speckles. Tables, chairs, dolls and shoes glued with objects manufactured on the sewing machine. They could be tentacles, pieces of coral, but for the critics and (reluctantly) for Yayoi herself, they are pure phallus symbols. The show element, as used in Delft and Schiedam, is still relatively new to her. She says (only a free translation is possible with her): “I’ve done something like this five times in a disco in New York. No, not completely naked there: America is very difficult, puritan, yes. If Yayoi is completely naked, Yayoi has to get out of there. Made nude film, lots of sex in, for underground movie festival in Belgium.”

The Hague, photo by Herbert Behrens Deity Yayoi also tells about a “Body Festival” in New York’s Washington Square, where she says she was worshipped as a deity. She is childishly happy with this alleged success. It is the response to absolute loneliness. She says: “I make those mannequins with phallus symbols to have them around me. I am interested in bodies, I have a sex obsession. Yayoi has also made a bed from those symbols, so that she can sleep well alone.

Yayoi has no boyfriend, no drink, no drugs. Nude is very important.” That is a discovery that Yayoi has only been working with since 1962. Why only in recent years? Yayoi, drinking weak tea: “The sex revolution is now coming. The pill has released the woman. It is now the woman who chooses. Everyone takes everyone; that would be ideal. No, not Yayoi herself. They already call me a priest in New York, so I’m out of it; Yayoi is not participating.” Make beautiful In addition to free sexuality, Yayoi also advocates the beauty of the body in art. The words that motivate her paintings of living nudes are not very convincing. She says: “Our generation is miserable. We are alone, life is very cold. We hate each other; there is so much war in which bodies are destroyed. I make them beautiful to protect them from war.” She means: if I make those bodies beautiful, others will forget to destroy them. Doesn’t sound very realistic, Yayoi. “Yayoi Japanese,” she says, and that must explain a lot. In the toilet She paints the development of Yayoi Kusama from child to artist herself in a few strokes: “Mother did not want me to paint. I did it on toilet and called it toilet art. Look (she shows it on a piece of paper), I made circles and those rounds of flowers and those flowers became women and those women became phallus symbols. And next year Yayoi will write a book.” In that book it will not only be about sex; Yayoi has a lot of obsessions—food is second. She says about this: “Whether we want to or not, we have to live. Drinking and eating is also endless. Yayoi taped clothes with macaroni to live out that obsession. Macaroni is made mechanically and is also endless.” “Sweet” Yayoi also puts her food obsession into practice: “Yayoi wants western food in a Chinese restaurant and Chinese food in a western restaurant. And then they say that Yayoi is difficult. I am difficult. No, Yayoi is sweet, nice.” She likes to talk in the third person, a Japanese custom? She pretends not to hear the question. She is also a mis-

tress in that game. Leo Verboon knows it. He says: “Actually she is a classic example of the unfortunate artist. She calls you over the weekend to say she’s so lonely, but nobody wants her because she’s so difficult. She has huge publicity, but there are still few who dare the adventure of an exhibition with her.” Sale Last weekend, another one dropped out: the municipal city of Schiedam. The gallery Orez has Yayoi Kusama under contract for another year. Leo Verboon: “Don’t think we want to lose her. Are you crazy, we really want to keep her. She sells enormously, but that has also made her very expensive. It will be difficult to hold her.” And Yayoi? She works fanatically—art or no art. Living out her obsessions keeps her alive. And life also wants Yayoi, if only then. JAPANESE SOWED CONCERN BY PAINTING NAKED MEN / Yayoi in her Love Room: “I am the priestess, a cold woman” by Ben Dull, Het Parool, November 28, 1967 One meter-forty-tall, in a red romper suit and with long black hair that covers more than half of that meter-forty, Kusama stands in her Love Room in the Galerie Orez in The Hague and industriously decorates a few large bows. The bows have been carefully placed around the slender waists and thighs of an unmoved group of otherwise undressed mannequins. Dolls and walls are painted in soft, tender colors with fluorescent paint and additionally covered with colorful dots, round spots, which Yayoi Kusama calls “polka dots” in a highly confusing and unintelligible English shriek. The dolls cost 2,500 each. Yayoi Kusama has caused some unrest in the Netherlands in the past ten days by doing great things as a small woman. On several occasions she painted naked men with a paint brush and spray can with “polka dots.” Among others places, in a Delft student society and in the Schiedam Stedelijk Museum, during the opening of the exhibition Balance, in which her work is also represented. New York Yavoi Kusama was born in Tokyo and has lived in New York for several years. Many times she has painted partially or completely

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undressed men there, including at a “Body Festival” in Washington Square attended by thousands of hippies and artists, where she was worshiped as a goddess, as a priestess of the nude. She tells it as excitedly as it is chaotic. More details are confusingly released. She does not smoke, drink, use drugs or practice love. She finds satisfaction in her art, only in her bed does she dream of an unreal great love that will never come. Not for her. Recently, in a Belgian underground film, she played the leading role completely naked, two and a half years ago she was with her work at the big Zero exhibition in the Amsterdam Stedelijk, where she showed a rowing boat completely covered with white, phallic-like bulges, which was bought by the Stedelijk. Covering all possible household objects with phallic symbols is one of her favorite activities. She manufactures them from cotton and now mainly plastic, diligently at her sewing machine. “My mother didn’t allow me to paint as a child in Tokyo,” she recalls, “A Japanese woman has to dedicate herself to her husband and her family. That’s why I locked myself in the toilet if I wanted to paint. They became female and male genitals, but more or less abstract, like colorful flowers and ‘polka dots’ against a black background on cardboard. Because life, nature, reproduction baffles me. Nature is flowers, is reproduction, is sex, is life, is nature and is also dead. I am three thousand years old and would like to be fifteen.” She skillfully sprays some sandwiches with synthetic red and green paint and offers them to her visitors. The background to this ritual is not fully understood, although she says she has an obsession with both sex and food. A shirt hangs on the wall. It is covered with macaroni and sprayed silver. A remarkable work of art. “Food is necessary for life and for love,” says Yayoi Kusama, who usually delivers her lyrics as a cool businesswoman, but sometimes suddenly gives a real impression of obsession, “I like to work with macaroni. Potatoes are too primitive for me, but the mechanical macaroni in its endless repetition means a lot to me, also because of its erotic associations.” When she discovers that Charles Vlek, the photographer, uses a Japanese camera, she seems as happy as a child. She shows herself willing to quickly put on a different

suit or tights for each photo, white with colorful “polka dots,” for example, or her precious cloak of long-haired black monkey fur. She works with the routine of a fashion model. On the painting of naked men: “Life is cold, we are all lonely. Our naked body is all we really own. We have forgotten its beauty. If you fall dead on the street in New York, you should be happy if they step over you.” It will probably not happen to Yayoi. She says: “The body is a work of art that I want to make even more beautiful. Another motive: we ourselves are love. We are in the middle of the sexual revolution, the pill has released the woman. She can take who she wants, as can the man. When they see me at work, they long for love. I don’t like painting naked men. It does not apply to me, I am the priestess, I am a cold woman. I experience it all spiritually. Life and death are both inescapable. Sometimes it makes me desperate.”

time. She has often exhibited with the Nul group. With her work she is actually in between Zero and new realism. We do feel kinship with her, by renewing and endlessly repeating what she does. At the opening in Schiedam, Hans van Manen was initially going to come with his dance group, but suddenly it was not possible. To save things, I then undressed for the paint sprayers of Yayoi. Out of friendship and appreciation for her work. Moreover, it is just pleasant to undergo it.” Yayoi Kusama on painting naked men: “There is so much hatred and war and cold. So many bodies are being destroyed. I make them beautiful. To protect them from war, from bullets.” And a little later: “Moreover, sex is very fashionable.” She looks like she hopes no one has heard and decides to show a photo, on which she lies naked on her stomach on a large bed completely covered with its somewhat tiresome symbols.

very loud rhythm and blues music. Among the insecure audience, Conny Stuart and the visual artists Mark Brusse, Rik van Bentum and Frank Lodeizen, who also visited Galerie Orez in the afternoon. Lodeizen, recently back from Turkey and ready with a series of etchings entitled Turkish fairy tales for Henriette, painted female nudes a few times because he liked it. He says kindly: “everyone uses eroticism in his work, but I prefer Karel Appel with his ‘I just mess around’ than those statements and slogans that Miss Kusama gives afterwards for her work. She also has so many explanations. That is suspicious. To me it is a gigantic commercial farce, a nauseating bourgeois joke for people who actually find something very scary and crazy naked. Maybe she just likes to paint naked men.” After her performance, Yayoi Kusama says: “You should actually see my work as a protest against Johnson because he does not end the Vietnam War. It also has to do with

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, photo by Charles Vlek She looks worried. There is no satisfactory answer to the question why she almost only paints naked men and only symbolizes male sex organs. Relationship Zero-artist Jan Schoonhoven, who just exhibited at the Sao Paulo Biennale, enters Galerie Orez, where he exhibits together with Yayoi. He says: “I have known her for a long

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“My work is also a protest against the authorities, an opposition to authority,” she says, as if it suddenly comes to mind. Next to her is a pair of silver women’s shoes with silver symbols on them. They cost a few hundred guilders. In the evening at the Amsterdam Birds Club, an excited Yayoi repaints the bellies and buttocks of five young men, who are only wrapped in trendy necklaces. There is

sunshine and with Adam and Eve and everything. I want to make people happy with my ‘polka dots.’ They must form a continuous line and bring unity. Actually, I would like to apply ‘polka dots’ everywhere, on the street, on the facades of the houses. I would love to paint your queen with ‘polka dots,’ but I don’t know if she wants to. I didn’t ask.”

THE PARTY OF THE ZEROS: Yayoi Kusama, who proclaims herself the most famous of all the Zeros, is among us. The Netherlands has taken note. After this introduction, we will be glad to wave her goodbye. Panorama, December 5, 1967 WHEN JAN TAKES OFF HIS PANTS, the hilarity reaches fever pitch. Jan’s surname is Schoonhoven. He is a Delft-based painter, who looks like a Post Office official from The Hague, which he also is. But because Jan paints and has just won second prize at the Sao Paulo Biennale—a jury decision that came like a bolt from the blue to Jan in particular—removing his pants is a cultural act. In such a case, an ordinary citizen would instantly be seen as having lost touch with all standards of decency. But Jan is an artist. For him, such a gesture immediately acquires artistic significance. Incidentally, he doesn’t even remove his pants himself. That trouble is spared him by a one-meter-forty-tall Japanese woman, who has acquired a certain fame as Yayoi Kusama for her unusual works of art, but who has mainly attracted attention since arriving in the Netherlands from her hometown of New York by painting naked bodies. “because,” she says, “so many bodies are mutilated on the battlefields that the beauty of the human body is in danger of being lost. I make them beautiful to protect them from the war.” A lame excuse that barely conceals the actual motives. And that, incidentally, does not hold true for Schoonhoven. His body, which is supported by the State, appears to have been so ravaged by time that onlookers with any sense of beauty should avert their eyes in disgust. But that doesn’t happen. In the Delft society Novum, the crowd cheers and the party of cultural barbarians continues unabated. Yayoi Kusama paints naked bodies and

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the party rages on out of control, whereby clothes are ripped off bodies left and right and naked adults also begin to smear each other with paint. Yayoi helps a lot with that undressing. A girl allows herself to be partly undressed by a boy who is also partly undressed, after which she too is dipped in soft pastel shades by Yayoi. And the bystanders enjoy themselves in the full realization that they are witnessing a great cultural event. Because Yayoi is not just anyone. Yayoi is “the most famous.” American pop artists bow their heads deeply to Yayoi, because she is the high priestess of modern art. That’s why, after the happening in Delft, this remarkable Japanese export item was also given the opportunity to transform naked bodies into carnival dolls with paintbrushes and spray cans in other places as well. In the Schiedam Stedelijk Museum at the opening of the exhibition Balans, where once again a deranged Jan Schoonhoven had to prove that his name clearly contradicts his exposed body [Schoon means beautiful in Dutch]. In the Amsterdam nightclub The Birds, where five naked gentlemen had themselves colorfully daubed by Yayoi in front of a chortling audience. And during a Love-in at the Jaarbeurshallen in Utrecht. The fact that the police arrested a naked boy there threw a spanner in Yayoi’s paint pot, preventing her from reaching her full potential. Incidentally, Jan Schoonhoven was not very pleased with the happening in Schiedam. “Actually, the ballet dancer Hans van Maanen was supposed to come, but he couldn’t make it. So I had to. On my own, with one volunteer later, who unfortunately kept his pants on. That, of course, is not true commitment!” No no, obviously not.

Priestess Those responsible for the presence of this Japanese woman in the Netherlands are the gentlemen Leo Verboon and Albert Vogel: owners of the Orez Gallery in The Hague. Yayoi had also used her grubby paintbrush there, earlier in the evening of the Delft happening. Verboon: “On that evening, we opened an exhibition of works by Jan Schoonhoven. It was only for invited guests; no one else was allowed in. Later they left for Delft, where the students arranged a party for Jan.” Verboon and Vogel paid the travel expenses from New York for this mini-Japanese, in whom all the madness of this century is apparently united. They finance her stay in the Netherlands and provide her workspace and materials, so that “the most famous” can carry on her artistic antics undisturbed. She belongs to the Zero group and Verboon explains what this group stands for: “The isolation of materials and repetition of the object.” A profound analysis, which in practice turns out to yield nothing more than eighty half clothespins on a shelf, a thousand nails in a spool of wood and, for Yayoi, an almost endless repetition of the phallus symbol: a shoe with a phallus, a chair with phalluses and in the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, the unsuspecting spectator can witness an entire boat with phalluses. But “I, Yayoi, the most famous,” is not content with sexuality alone. She is also obsessed with food. She covers garments with macaroni strands and only the most discerning Zero connoisseur can taste the endless repetition of the object in that macaroni.

Delft, photo by Theo van Houts

The Hague, photo by Theo van Houts

Meanwhile, she also continues to paint human bodies to “make them beautiful again.” A statement which suggests that Yayoi does not find the human body beautiful at all and thus wishes to complete their creation with her own hands, like an oriental goddess. An activity that is watched ecstatically by a group of cultural fools, but which only proves that the paltry creativity of this Japanese woman has probably been smothered in macaroni. Verboon: “The painting of bodies is only a very small aspect of her work. She is a great artist and almost all museums around the world have works by her.” At the most, that proves that Yayoi must have already made many tens of thousands of phallus symbols. And that, of course, is very diligent. Sexual Revolution Yayoi, who will thankfully leave for New York again soon, calls herself the priestess of the nude. She wishes that everyone would show themselves to the world undressed. She wants us to openly commit the act of lovemaking in the street, because sex should be enjoyed with the same nonchalance with which we drink a glass of Coke. That is very strange, because anyone who gives Yayoi a playful slap on the behind, runs the risk of getting a hard slap back. Nevertheless, she maintains that in this “age of the pill,” the woman must choose the man and no longer the other way around; and that she, the most famous of all, will personally cause a sexual revolution. A bold statement, the hubris of which only becomes apparent when the same Yayoi crosses both arms in front of her bosom in shock when a man happens to see her changing for the umpteenth time. Because although nakedness for Yayoi is a kind of rabbit that she wants to conjure from the top hat of all mankind, this priestess herself does not wish to be seen naked. Nor can she bear it when two people caress each other before her eyes—then she looks away in disbelief. And that may explain why this Japanese ego tripper is sometimes very alone, very solitary and very sad, exclaiming that, as far as she is concerned, the whole art world can go to hell and that she wants to get married. An act that in itself could undoubtedly have a purifying effect on our little Dutch art scene. But it will

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Delft, photo by Theo van Houts never happen: Yayoi hates real men. She finds them intolerable. And that probably explains the voracity with which she rips the clothes off some of those men and then mutilates those bare bodies into laughable totem poles. This Yayoi, who propagates a sexual revolution in an almost pathological way, remains ice cold herself. She doesn’t need it herself; she doesn’t need anything herself. She does not smoke, does not drink and is not addicted to narcotics. And when a man happens to come too close while she is changing clothes, she angrily exclaims, “Don’t touch me!” She prefers to spend a long time looking at her own (nude) photos, kissing them, anxiously announcing that she has too much fat on her hips, kissing them again and then saying that at night she always dreams of an endless love. And that’s not all she says. She observes with the utmost delicacy that no one should be ashamed of their nakedness. A comment that proves what a delicate woman this Japanese mini wonder is. So delicate that only a few people will feel regret when she boards a plane to New York tomorrow taking all her mess with her. This undoubtedly includes Jan (pants off) Schoonhoven.

DUTCH DOTS, IN THE PERFORMANCES, THE HAPPENINGS, AND THE EVENTS Margriet Schavemaker*

Margriet Schavemaker is an art historian and philosopher, specialized in counterculture, feminism, media art, and critical museum practices. Her PhD thesis is dedicated to the relationship between word and image in the critical art practices of the 1960s and 70s. From 2009-2019 Schavemaker worked at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, where she curated exhibitions such as ZERO: Let Us Explore the Stars (2015) and Jean Tinguely: Machine Spectacle (2016). Since 2018 Schavemaker has been a Professor of Media and Art at the University of Amsterdam. She is currently working as Artistic Director of the Amsterdam Museum, where she is running a program dedicated to decolonization and bringing together contemporary art and heritage.

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Although ZERO was an open network made up of artist-“friends,” it had hardly any female members.1 I remember how happy I was when, for the first time, I laid eyes on the television footage of the happenings Kusama did in Holland in 1967. Despite my enthusiasm for the ZERO network, I was struggling with a growing discomfort concerning the limited role of female contributors (of which Kusama was one of the very few) and related issues of gender inequality.2 How to critique this? Those happenings were the best possible answer to these probing questions. In the jazz club of the Delft University, participants saw Kusama painting her famous polka dots on nude men. In what seemed like a cheerful and somewhat hallucinatory rock orgy, Kusama turned the slim, naked male bodies into her works of art by dotting them. Moreover, one of the men appeared to be Jan Schoonhoven, the celebrated Dutch ZERO artist, famous for his white serial grid structures. In other words: Kusama, being dressed herself, acted as a playful yet powerful female artist in charge, taking her experimental practice to the next level by undressing her male audience and peers, using them as her expanded canvas. In my mind, there is also another link with a core work: a registered performance by Yves Klein in which paintings were produced by making naked women, their bodies dipped in paint, squirm back and forth on large canvases (the so-called Anthropometry, from 1960). Klein’s work was intended as an ironic comment on the painterly performances of the previous decades by macho artists like Jackson Pollock and Kazuo Shiraga. Thus, with her Delft happening, Kusama playfully subverted and therefore exposed the sexual power relations existing in the artworks of these famous predecessors.

Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, 1967. Photo by Ton den Haan

The Delft happening was taking place in a moment of change in Kusama’s career. It was a time in which she was increasingly removing herself from the art world, dedicating more of her time to activities in the realm of media, fashion, and commercial entrepreneurship. Her goals were idealistic, aiming to liberate people politically and sexually. Her own body and persona were the focal point of her expanded practice, yet under the influence of the hippie culture she also started changing her work from more private performances to the more inclusive interactive happenings. One of her “signature practices,” the polka dot, remains a key component. For Kusama, the dot represents a radical new way of connecting people with the world around them. In her words: Polka dots can’t stay alone, like the communicative life of people, two and three and more polka dots became movement. [...] When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment. I become part of the eternal, and we obliterate ourselves in Love.3

Birds Club, Amsterdam, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

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After a few initial public polka dot painting events in the summer of 1967 in New York, she traveled to the Netherlands for a show of her work at the Orez Gallery in The Hague. There, she started to experiment for the very first time with the polka dot painting sessions on naked men, which she called “Naked Body Festivals.” After a festival in the Orez Gallery and the earlier one mentioned in Delft, Kusama organized “unannounced” festivals in Schiedam, Utrecht, and two in Amsterdam. The first Amsterdam Festival took place on November 21 at the Stedelijk Museum, where Kusama had been part of a large ZERO show with a boat covered with phallic forms, surrounded by 999 posters of that same boat (Aggre-

gation: One Thousand Boats Show). The boat was donated to the Stedelijk Museum by Kusama afterwards and was on display as part of the permanent collection. During the opening of the exhibition Signalement 1967, Kusama organized two unannounced happenings in the galleries of the permanent collection. We see her in photos layering “her” boat with polka dot cut-outs in red and yellow. In the background appears a slide or film, projected on the wall, showing Kusama reclining in one of her infinity rooms. The other photos show us some half-undressed painted “visitors” in one of the museum exhibition spaces. As the bodies were not naked enough for Kusama, she considered the festival unsuccessful. The day after, another venue was found in one of the bigger nightclubs in town, the Birds Club. In the photographs, one indeed notices several naked men being painted by Kusama and painting each other. The next day, Kusama repeated the show, now as part of a well-organized festival in a congress hall in Utrecht. Kusama considered both shows a huge success. Not least because there was also resistance. As she recalls: As soon as we began to disrobe, the crowd reacted with catcalls and heckling. I reasoned with them, earnestly explaining that the su pression of sex was directly related to war. ‘Which do you think is worse, war or free sex?’ I asked. ‘Do you prefer war?’ The crowd instantly fell silent. I like to think that I was able to open the eyes of some of the conservative Dutch to the importance of sexual liberation.4 Birds Club, Amsterdam, 1967. Photographer unknown

Two months later, in January 1968, public nudity in art became legal in New York and this gave Kusama the opportunity to bring her Naked Body Festivals to Manhattan. In addition to these public festivals, Kusama organized ticketed naked body performances and orgies in her studio and other venues in the city, often fueled with psychedelic drugs. Idealistically, the erotic sensations produced by the participants of the orgies and the nude painting activities would organically connect as pure and autonomous creations and, through these links, bring about a new society. As promotional text for her body happenings, Kusama often used the following lines: Please the Body 50% is Illusion and 50% is Reality Learn, Unlearn, Relearn The Body is Art

Jaarbeurshal, Utrecht, 1967. Photo by J.J. Frericks

Despite the utopian ideals, in the following two years Kusama’s name became synonymous with porn. Her studio was perceived by many as a brothel and several commercial sex establishments started copying Kusama’s example and ventured into the body-painting business to expand their clientele as well. To make things even worse, she also licensed her name in 1969 to a pornographic tabloid titled Kusama Orgy that was sold all over the US. It is not hard to imagine that in this period her fame in the art world began to wane. She had distanced herself from many of the dealers and collectors who had supported her work in the early sixties. To her mind, this was not entirely problematic as she believed that “avant-garde artists should use mass communication as traditional painters use paints and brushes.”5 Moreover, Kusama was critically adverse to the art world, believing that the dominant movements at the time, like Pop Art, failed to change anything and were just ordinary art. Being the owner of several commercial enterprises for her various activities, she proved quite capable of providing her own alternative infrastructure for her experimental, transgressive productions, including corporations de-

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Signalement 1967, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1967. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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voted to everything from her film projects to her posters, from the events to the magazine. And new in 1969: a firm devoted to her fashion designs with her signature colorful polka dots and cut-out dots at strategic places revealing the sexual parts of the body.

Verstappens home, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Dam-square, Amsterdam, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Damrak Neon-shop, Amsterdam, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

And then came 1970. The members of the German and the Dutch ZERO group had split up, disappointed by the general public’s lack of interest, and not satisfied with the slow political and economic changes. Were the times changing politically and ideologically? Was there a systemic attack on countercultures by the US government that, as some experts claim, caused a crucial moment in which Kusama’s dedication to the social and political engagement of the previous years ebbed?6 It was also the beginning of the decade in which she would have herself committed to a mental institution in Tokyo (in 1977) and by doing so (and through her diaries) began shifting the narrative of her multilayered productions into a direction that is still prevalent to this day. But that would come later. What happened in 1970 to that experimental and entrepreneurial woman who traveled all over the world, using New York as her main domicile? In that key year of 1970, Kusama returned to the Netherlands for a rather long period; first a couple of weeks at a psychiatrist friend’s house in Bunnik and after that, for a longer period in Scheveningen, at the house of Harrie Verstappen and his wife. The photographs taken by Verstappen show Kusama traveling in the Netherlands, sometimes in significant places like Dam Square in Amsterdam, where Kusama is surrounded by hippies. At other moments we see her staging herself in the context of elements of “stereotypical” Dutch culture, like a street barrel organ, a small windmill, or a sex shop. Occasionally the audience is asked to hold up copies of her porn magazine. But most of the pictures seem to be shot with the intention of showing (and marketing?) her new clothing line: in more crowded public spaces, but also in rural areas and private spaces, Kusama and friends are dressed in her own designs with painted and cut-out dots. It is challenging to come to a satisfying reading of these activities. Perhaps in 1970 her work was less experimental and critical than the earlier happenings of 1967 that blew the public away. However, as in most of her work, she interestingly plays with stereotypes (in this case both national and sexual), and a sense of irony prevails. Also, the intricate relationship between her work, her body, her psychic state and her limitless yet controlled engagement with mass media are captivating and elusive as always. It made and continues to make her one of the most significant contemporary artists.

Sex-shop, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

House of the psychiatrist, Bunnik, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Otto Piene: “ZERO is not a group in a definitely organized way. There are no ‘members,’ there is only a human relationship among several artists and an artistic relationship among different individuals.” The Times Literary Supplement, London, September 3, 1964 2 In 2015 Margriet Schavemaker curated the exhibition ZERO: Let Us Explore the Stars at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. 3 Yayoi Kusama quoted in Midori Yamamura, Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,

2015), p. 149. 4 Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy (London: Tate Publishing, 2011), p. 115. 5 Yayoi Kusama quoted in Yamamura, p. 165. 6 Yamamura, p. 170.

FASHION: WITH A HOLE FOR A SEXUAL REVOLUTION Tijs Visser

Why look like other people? Buck the Establishment! Haven’t you a personality? Express it! Press release, Kusama Fashion Institute, 1968

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Uit Bellevue: Nul-ZERO, Bellevue Theater, Amsterdam, 1966, with Henk Peeters and the television-team. In the front left, the contribution by Kusama. Photo by Frans van Geelen

Uit Bellevue: Nul-ZERO, Bellevue Theater, Amsterdam, 1966, with the designs by Peeters’ students. Photo by Frans van Geelen

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In 1965, when Henk Peeters was asked to give ideas for decorating and presenting the Dutch VARA television program Uit Bellevue, his idea was to realize a program about Nul and Zero. With artworks, music performances, a reading of poetry, a fashion show, and conversations with his artist friends.1 And that’s how Kusama got involved in a televised fashion show that was much-maligned by the press.2 During her stay in Amsterdam, where Kusama was installing work at the Stedelijk Museum, Peeters took Kusama to the Akademie in Arnhem, where Peeters was teaching at the fashion department, to meet with the students, and show her their designs for the television program.3 Some of their clothing had already been shown in an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.4 New materials of nylon and plastic were of particular interest to Peeters and his students, as these were not yet used in art or to make clothing. Plus, cheap mass-produced materials would allow them to develop disposable clothing for a large audience. And with the use of the almost transparent silver plastic, parts of the body could become visible: that would give the wearer a feeling of freedom, following the students. Kusama must have been fascinated by the students’ designs and the plan to show them in a fashion show for television. She, therefore, decided to let go of her idea of painting naked Jan Schoonhoven and instead, to give content and shape to the television program together with Peeters. And so the credits of the program read: “Uit Bellevue, directed by Yayoi Kusama and Henk Peeters.”5

But more artists discovered fashion, not just as an experiment with textiles; the possibility to reach a larger audience in this way certainly played a significant role. For the Atelier Bruna Bini & Giuseppe Telese, Lucio Fontana designed three evening dresses in 1961: one with large cuts in the front, one with smaller cuts on the sides, and one with circular holes on the hips.6 While Fontana was interested in the erotic appearance of the woman and wanted to accentuate the contour of the body with the cuts, Kusama decided to go a step further by making large holes and cuts to show the sexual organs, both of women and men. Cloth as a social statement and to liberate the body, or as Kusama wrote: “The best way of looking human is to go around completely nude.”7 In 1966, the year of the television broadcast, the step to show her provocative designs to a larger public was not large: the Birds Club in Amsterdam, where Kusama had performed her Naked Body Paint action, had bird-like cages, both inside and outside, as public hugging spaces.8 Various erotic clothing shows occurred at the A Flight to Lowlands Paradise festival in Utrecht, where Kusama painted the naked artist Jacob Jutte. Phil Bloom performed completely naked in the Hoepla television program by artist Wim T. Schippers. And the Dutch Association for Sexual Reform (NVSH) opened an erotic laboratory; the pill was freely available, and the sexual revolution was erupting.

Spatial Dress by Lucio Fontana, Milan, 1961. Photo by Giancolombo

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Back in America, Kusama could only show her designs, metallic dresses with holes and cuts, in the confined spaces of the art and performance world. But in 1968, public nudity in art became legal in New York. That allowed Kusama to

Photo session, Kusama’s studio, New York, 1968. Kusama in a Silver Squid Dress (next page) and Moon Fashion (above). Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

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continue developing dresses like the oversized dress for several people, who could, following Kusama, freely indulge themselves inside(1968). Yoko Ono and John Lennon posed “naked” during one of the Nude Fashion (1969) events in the “togetherness-look” dress. The Antwerp photographer Raoul Van den Boom traveled especially to New York (1968) to photograph her in her studio, always looking into the camera, posing provocatively, breasts visible through the holes. However, no newspaper or magazine was willing to publish the photos: the shocking was now gone; the sexual revolution had started. In 1969, Blue Movie, directed by Andy Warhol, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive a wide theatrical release in the United States.

Fashion Show in Venice, with Kusama on the right, published in De Telegraaf, August 2, 1970

Kusama started her Fashion Institute; with its clothing studio and its shop (1968). And as she wanted to be an artist and entrepreneur, she developed a new fashion line; instead of cheap silver plastics with holes, graceful net structures and tie-dyed patterns on fabrics. In 1970 Kusama organized a small show with half-naked models during the Venice Biennale: it was the first time that a European audience could see her clothes. She happily wrote to Udo Kultermann: “The Hamburg TV took pictures of my new fashions.”9 But the Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf, saw it differently: “colorful figures that attracted attention with childish games.” Her show Cage/Painting/ Women at the Orez Gallery in 1970 would be the first and last exhibition where she showed her clothes, but the early silver designs with holes at the place of the genitalia, the Nude Look, were absent. None of the many photos Harrie Verstappen took from improvised fashion shows, in and out of the gallery, were ever published, and the exhibition was never mentioned in any of her exhibition catalogs. Henk Peeters, who opened the exhibition, returned disappointed to Arnhem, to his students; “at least they had fresh ideas!”10 Note: Fifty years later, Kusama’s studio forbids the publication of photos showing Kusama’s breasts.

Fashion Show near Orez Gallery, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Fashion Show at the exhibition Cage/Painting/Women, Orez Gallery, The Hague, 1970. Photo by Harrie VerYoko Ono and John Lennon in the Orgy Dress, New York, 1969. Photo by Fred W. McDarrah

Vara, Uit Bellevue, ZERO-NUL, April 18, 1966. Directed by Yayoi Kusama and Henk Peeters, journalist Joop van Tijn interviewed a couple of Zero artists in German and in English. With Bruno Maderna, Rickey Spindel, Peter Schat, G.K. van ‘t Reve. 2 “Bellevue voor een minderheid” in Friese Koerier, April 19, 1966. 3 Jan Aarntzen, Maarten van Dreven and Berry Brun. See Marga van Mechelen, Echt Peeters, Uitgeverij Waanders BV, 2001, p. 101. 4 Vormen van de Kleur, curated by Wim Beeren. See Marga van Mechelen, Echt Peeters, Uitgeverij Waanders BV, 2001, p. 101. 5 see note 1. 6 See Germano Celant, Il Tempo e la Moda, Biennale di Firenza, Skira (Milan, 1996). 7 Press-release, collection Orez/Vogel Archive.

“Veel sex en eigen tijdschrift: Amsterdam krijgt een eigen playboy-club met beeldschone gastvrouwen (Lots of sex and own magazine: Amsterdam gets its own playboy club with beautiful hostesses).” In Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, June 2, 1967. 9 Postcard from Kusama to Udo Kultermann, June 25, 1970, Udo Kultermann Archive, Washington University, St. Louis. See Greta Kühnast, Yayoi Kusama, exhibition catalog, Gropiusbau Berlin, 2021, p. 207. 10 See the interview with Henk Peeters in this publication, p. 182.

HAPPENINGS 1967–1970

The Hague November 3, 1967 Internationale Galerij Orez Naked Body Festival

In 1967 Kusama began a series of happenings in Holland in which she asked visitors to undress so that she could paint them with dots and slogans. At some of those happenings, she would also read her poetry. In a Dutch television (VPRO) interview from 1967, she describes the happenings as “A Naked Body Festival.” In her autobiography, Kusama called the event in Delft “Music and Love” and in Schiedam “Love and Nude Body Anti-war Parade.” In 1968 she started the Kusama Fashion Institute and opened a boutique at 404, Sixth Avenue, New York, to sell her fashion designs. She also tried to export her fashion to Europe. At the Venice Biennale opening in 1970, Kusama presented an unofficial show of her “nude look.” These were garments designed by Kusama with large round holes in the location of the genitals. She repeated the show at the Orez Gallery as part of the exhibition Cage/Paintings/Woman. Most of the clothes were made during her stay with Harrie Verstappen and his wife Willy in Scheveningen. The happenings as well as the fashion shows were spontaneous and not mentioned in any of the publications.

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Delft November 3, 1967 Sociëteit Novum Naked Body Festival

Schiedam November 17, 1967 Stedelijk Museum Naked Body Festival

Amsterdam

Venice

The Hague

November 21, 1967 Stedelijk Museum Naked Body Festival

June 23, 1970 35rd Venice Biennale, Central Pavilion Orgy Happening / Fashion show

October 16, 1970 Internationale Galerij Orez Fashion show

Amsterdam

Linschoten

November 22, 1967 Birds Club Naked Body Festival

Summer 1970 Dam Square Orgy Happening / Fashion show

October, 1970 Castle Nieuw Linschoten Fashion show

Utrecht

Scheveningen

November 24, 1967 Jaarbeurshal: Flight to Lowlands Paradise Naked Body Festival

October, 1970 Werfstraat-Jurriaan Kokstraat Fashion show

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DOCUMENTATION 1965–1970

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PHOTOGRAPHERS 1965 1967

1968 1970

Marianne Dommisse Herbert Behrens Pieter Boomsma Just Fahner Gerard Fieret Theo van Houts Ton Janssen Cor Jaring Cor Stutvoet Harrie Verstappen Raoul Van den Boom Harrie Verstappen

TELEVISION 1965 1966 1967 1968 1970

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Radio-Télévision Belge Française Westdeutscher Rundfunk Hessische Rundfunk Vrije Protestantse Radio Omroep Nederlandse Televisie Stichting Norddeutscher Rundfunk

PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Marianne Dommisse Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: May 1965 Occasion: Facets of contemporary eroticism Source: Marco von der Nahmer Collection: Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Marianne Dommisse Unknown Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: May 18, 1965 Occasion: Facets of contemporary eroticism Source: Marco von der Nahmer Collection: Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Location: Galerie Thelen, Essen Date: April 25, 1966 Occasion: Driving Image Show Collection: Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

Harrie Verstappen

Theo van Houts

Location: Schelpkade, near the Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Polka Dot Love Room Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Polka Dot Love Room Collection: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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Pieter Boersma

Theo van Houts

Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Body Paint Festival Source: Pieter Boersma Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE Note: In presence of the Dutch television

Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Polka Dot Love Room Collection: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Note: Kusama uses different clothes for the different photo sessions

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Theo van Houts Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Polka Dot Love Room Collection: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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Harrie Verstappen Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Polka Dot Love Room Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Theo van Houts

Ton Janssen

Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November, 3 1967 Occasion: Naked Body Festival Collection: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Naked Body Festival Source: Marianne Kleijwegt Collection: 0-INSTITUTE

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Gerard Fieret

Ton Janssen

Location: The Hague Date: 1967 Collection: Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Location: Sociëteit Novum, Delft Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Body Paint Festival Source: Marianne Kleijwegt Collection: 0-INSTITUTE With: Naked Jan Schoonhoven, Gust Romijn, Eddy Determeyer, Jacob Zekveld being painted by Kusama, and with the artists Woody van Amen, Stanley Brown, Louise and Robert Smit, Gerard Verdijk, Jef Verheyen in the public. Live music by the band of Jan Schoonhoven’ son Jaap, with light projections by Livinus van den Bundt. Filmed by the VPRO Dutch television with Gerard Stigter (K. Schippers) and Netty Rosenfeld. Ad Peeterse and Wim Beeren were refused entry.

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Betty van Garrel began her article with the headline “The ruthless love of Kusama”: Friday evening, 10.30 pm in the Delft Society “Novum Jazz.” A 1.40 m-tall creature with long black hair and black lace stockings that cover the plump legs, uses a brush with almost devout attention. In front of her stands a naked, curlyhaired, ginger adolescent, arms outstretched like Jesus in a passion play. While the brush, dipped in fresh watercolor tones, places round surfaces and lines on his torso, he looks proudly at bystanders. He seems proud and happy, because none other than the Japanese Yayoi Kusama, the famous nouveau réaliste living in New York, has elevated him and his body to a work of art. So I was that ginger and I am indeed in the pictures. The event was orga-

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nized—better: happened—on the occasion of Jan Schoonhoven’s second prize at the International Biennale of Sao Paulo. That Friday, we had gathered earlier in the afternoon for, I think, the opening of an exhibition of Schoonhoven’s reliefs at the Orez Gallery in The Hague. It was decided on the spot that the festivities would continue later that evening in Delft, where I lived above the Novum society and organized jazz concerts there every Saturday. The Schoonhoven’s were regulars there. Fluid Brick, the psychedelic pop group of Jaap Schoonhoven (son) would provide its debut (and also last performance?), Livinus van de Bundt was present with his “beams” and Kusama with her paint. The VPRO made television recordings (I thought Gerard Stigter was involved) and it became completely festive when Kusama asked me to take off my outer clothing for her painting exercise. Previously she had already been busy in Orez, where a student, also a member of our Wolbodo association, was decorated with her circles. But that had only been the torso. When we started in Novum, she hissed at me: “your panties, your panties,” after which I took everything off. Thus, I can call myself the world’s first person to be adorned completely naked by Kusama. Jan Schoonhoven and Gust Romijn followed. Fluid Brick pounded, Van de Bundt was beaming, the beer flowed freely and everyone was having a great time. Until the police, alarmed by students having a dispute meeting elsewhere in the building, showed up on the scene and the fun was quickly over. Police commissioner Bakker decided that Novum’s music license had to be withdrawn and the closing time was brought forward. Anyway, this resulted in a kind of cultural row that kept Delft captivated for months. Eddy Determeyer, living work of art Groningen, 2020

Theo van Houts Location: Sociëteit Novum, Delft Date: November 3, 1967 Occasion: Body Paint Festival Collection: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam With: Gust Romijn, Eddy Determeyer, Jef van Leeuwen, Jacob Zekveld, Jan Schoonhoven

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Herbert Behrens

Location: studio in The Hague Date: before November 17, 1967 Occasion: Balans Art Fair Collection: Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Location: Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Date: November 18, 1967 Occasion: Balans Art Fair Collection: Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

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Harrie Verstappen

Herbert Behrens

Location: Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Date: November 18, 1967 Occasion: Balans Art Fair Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Location: Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Date: November 17, 1967 Occasion: Balans Art Fair Collection: Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam With: Jan Schoonhoven, Joop Schafthuizen, Paul Damsté

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Cor Stutvoet

Harrie Verstappen

Location: Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Date: November 17, 1967 Occasion: Balans Art Fair Collection: Marcel Prins Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Jan Schoonhoven

Location: Birds Club, Amsterdam Date: November 22, 1967 Occasion: Body Paint Festival Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Wim Beeren, Agnes and Frits Becht

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Cor Stutvoet Location: Birds Club, Amsterdam Date: November 22, 1967 Occasion: Body Paint Festival Collection: Marcel Prins Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Annie Apol, Onno Boers

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Cor Jaring Location: Jaarbeurshal, Flight to Lowlands Paradise Date: November 24, 1967 Occasion: Naked Body Festival Collection: Stadsarchief, Amsterdam With: Jacob Jutte Note: Although several other “naked” performances and erotic fashion shows were held, including Phil Blooms ladies dance club “Kunst Baart Kracht” (Art gives Strength), artist Jacob Jutte was arrested by the police for being naked on stage.

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Raoul Van den Boom Location: Kusama’s studio, New York Date: 1968 Occasion: Body Paint Show Source: Raoul Van den Boom Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Kusama’s campaign for sexual liberation started in 1969 with the socalled “Kusama’s Mass Erotic happenings.” At these gatherings, participants were encouraged to explore diverse sexual behavior and find their own sexual preferences behind socially prescribed norms. And to advance the cause of the sexual revolution, she opened various enterprises, including a body-paint studio, and a fashion company. At the body-paint studio, clients could paint male and female nude models, at the cost of 25USD per hour. But “if participants had no interest in painting, they were able to enjoy a close inspection of every nook and cranny of those lovely bodies.” Kusama’s fashion company produced and sold handmade clothing. The main product was the party dress, with holes cut out at the breasts and crotch to allow the wearer to have sex without disrobing. There was also a sleeping-bag-like couples dress, with the idea that clothes should bring people together, not separate them. Kusama explained, “The holes are part of my holy war to exterminate the establishment,” and declared her opposition to “mechanized conformity and machine-made mediocrity.” In a press release, she wrote: “The best way of looking human is to go around completely nude, but if you must wear clothes and still want to look individual, wear handmade things!” In 1970, Kusama showed her clothing line “nude look” on the occasion of her exhibition Cage/Paintings/Woman at the Orez Gallery. Harrie Verstappen documented the improvised fashion shows, on the Dam Square in Amsterdam, and in- and outside the gallery in the Hague. Raoul Van den Boom documented Kusama in 1968 in her studio in New York, showing the “moon look.” None of these photos ever appeared in magazines or exhibition catalogs. Quotes taken from: Infinity Net, the autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, published by Tate Publishing, 2011

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Raoul Van den Boom Location: Kusama’s studio, New York Date: 1968 Source: Raoul Van den Boom Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: James Golatta

Raoul Van den Boom Location: Kusama’s studio Date: 1968 Project: fashion shoot Source: Raoul Van den Boom Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: James Golatta

I knew Yayoi very well, as I spent maybe a year hanging out with her almost daily in the mid-1960s. She also worked in my studio at the Chelsea Hotel for a while. There must be pictures of Kusama naked in my arms. I regularly visited happenings with her and we went out to dinner a lot. She was very collegial and passionate. Jan Cremer, Amsterdam, 2021

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Raoul Van den Boom Location: Kusama’s studio, New York Date: 1968 Source: Raoul Van den Boom Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE Note: Jan Henderikse signs Kusama and James Golatta

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Harrie Verstappen Location: Sex shop, The Hague Date: 1970 Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Harrie Verstappen Location: Dam Square, Amsterdam Date: 1970 Project: fashion shoot Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Willy Verstappen

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Harrie Verstappen Harrie Verstappen Location: Verstappen’s home, Scheveningen Date: October, 1970 Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Location: private villa, near Bunnik Date: October, 1970 Occasion: preparation for the exhibition Cage/Painting/Women Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

Harrie Verstappen Harrie Verstappen Location: around Bunnik Date: October, 1970 Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague Date: October 16, 1970 Occasion: Cage/Painting/Women Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Harrie Verstappen, Albert Vogel

Harrie Verstappen

Location: Jurriaan Kokstraat / Keizerstraat, Scheveningen Date: October, 1970 Project: fashion shoot Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE With: Willy Verstappen

Location: Castle Nieuw Linschoten, Linschoten Date: October, 1970 Project: fashion shoot Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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Harrie Verstappen Location: Castle Nieuw Linschoten, Linschoten Date: October, 1970 Project: fashion shoot Source: Harrie Verstappen Courtesy: 0-INSTITUTE

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TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES

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RTBF (Belgium) Program: Metamorphoses: L’Ecole de New York, Radio-Télévision Belge Française Location: Kusama’s studio, New York Duration: 3’09’’ Broadcast: February 17, 1965 Note: The documentary includes interviews with Jim Dine, Lee Bontecou, Roy Lichtenstein, Yayoi Kusama, Marisol, and George Segal. The sequence on Kusama shows her in her studio, in between many “phallic” objects, sitting in front of a mirror combing her hair, and showing her macaroni dresses. The documentary included images of several lost works as photoprints glued onto shoes. She speaks about her youth, her obsessions and her fear of death. At the end of the documentary, she emerges from behind her boat. Kusama mentions the documentary in her letter to Henk Peeters.

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WDR (German) Program: Almanach der Woche, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Location: Galerie Thelen, Essen Duration: 2’21” Broadcast: June 2, 1966 Note: The documentary opens with photos of Kusama in the New York studio and figures from the art world, including pictures of Kusama and Lucio Fontana in Milan (below). Next, we see the opening of the gallery; Kusama, the gallery owner and the guests. The documentary provides a precise overview of the exhibited objects, including the large “net paintings,” exhibited leaning against the wall. We also see Kusama, who smokes a “Polka dot” cigarette, shows a book painted with “polka dots,” and poses in front of the mirror, combing her hair.

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WDR (German) Program: Hier und Heute, Kultur Spiegel, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Location: Halfmannshof, Gelsenkirchen Duration: 2’55” Broadcast: June 3, 1966 Note: The documentary opens with Kusama walking to her studio at the Halfmannshof in her monkey-coat with her “macaroni” bag and suitcase. The floor is covered with various types of macaroni. As in many other video documentations, Kusama looks in the mirror and combs her hair, and pours tea. Several exhibited objects arrived from the Orez Gallery in The Hague.

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HR (German) Program: Kunst ’66. Hinweise, Ansichten und Tendenzen, Hessischer Rundfunk Author: Gerd Winkler Location: Biennale, Giardini, Venice Duration: 0’38” Broadcast: October 31, 1966 Note: The documentary shows Kusama in the environmental piece Narcissus Garden, composed of fifteen hundred mirrored plastic balls strewn across a grassy lawn. We see Kusama rearranging some of the balls amid official visitors. The commentator explains that “art can be seen instead of flowers, who are wilting the next day. The artist is an idea artist who does not care whether her art will be consumed as art.”

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VPRO (Dutch) Program: Kunstprogramma KPI, VPRO Location: Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague and Sociëteit Novum, Delft Duration: 3’34’’ Broadcast: November 16, 1967 Note: The documentary opens with an interview with Kusama, recorded in the Orez Gallery. Kusama speaks about the new film she recorded in Woodstock and New York, and that will premiere at the film festival in Knokke. She also talks about the happening she is planning for the Orez Gallery, her first full “naked body party,” with the public dancing, painting, and undressing in her gallery installation with black light and “polka dots.” Then we see images of the “party,” where Kusama paints the audience, including Jan Schoonhoven and Gust Romijn, and with Jef Verheyen and Leo Verboon in the audience. The documentary continues at the Novum Society in Delft, with a live band and light effects by Livinus van der Bundt. Here again, Jan Schoonhoven, Gust Romijn, and Jacob Zekveld are painted by Kusama. The attending students are fascinated by the happening.

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NTS (Dutch) Program: Open Oog, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting Location: Galerie Mickery, Loenersloot Duration: 1’40’’ Broadcast: July 14, 1968 Note: The documentary opens with an image of Kusama in the artwork My Flower Bed. Furthermore, images of all artworks in the gallery—including soft, sewn phallus objects in baskets, buckets, fruit bowls and trays—are on shoes and bottles. And on the walls, jackets, and dresses with macaroni, a long panel with sewn phallus objects, as well as a white “Infinity Net” painting. The commentary speaks about a significant development in the visual arts. Gallery owner Ritsaert ten Cate can be seen in the final images, sitting by a fireplace, surrounded by Kusama’s soft objects hanging from the ceiling like a giant mobile.

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NDR (German) Program: 35. Biennale Venedig, Norddeutscher Rundfunk Location: Central Pavilion, Biennale, Venice Duration: 0’36’’ Broadcast: June 23, 1970 Note: The documentary about the Venice Biennale opens with images of pigeons on Piazza St. Marco and Kusama on the stairs of the central pavilion. We see Kusama and a nude model showing Kusama's “nude look” or “moon fashion,” including textiles to cover the male genitals. Kusama’s first European fashion show was apparently a spontaneous show with local models and musicians. After the happening at the Biennale opening, Kusama showed her fashion at the Orez Gallery in The Hague, as part of her solo show.

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ABOUT KUSAMA

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1965

MISS YAYOI KUSAMA interviewed by Gordon Brown

1967

HALLUCINATION & DEATH by Yayoi Kusama

2005

ZERO AND KUSAMA Henk Peeters interviewed by Tijs Visser

2017

KUSAMA FOR COMPANY memories by Harrie Verstappen

MISS YAYOI KUSAMA Interviewed by Gordon Brown

Miss Yayoi Kusama covers boats, beds, sofas, and chairs with stuffed bags which have been called phallic symbols by the critics. Q: Miss Kusama, are the stuffed sacs with which you cover all those household objects really phallic symbols? A: Everybody says so. Q: How long does it take you to complete one of your sculptures? A: That depends on the size of the sculpture. For example, my Ten-Guest Table took me one month to finish. Q: In your exhibit, the “One thousand Boat Show,” which provoked so much attention in the art world, many people were moved to wonder about the actual basis of its star attraction. Was that a real boat? A: Yes, that was a real nine-foot rowboat. Q: And I may say that the other 999 were black and white mural images that dramatically created the frame of mind in which to view the real one. Both multiplication of the image and the multiplication of those curious phallic bumps were found to be, and you might say, hypnotic by the viewers. I have noticed that the accumulation of many similar elements is the one concept that runs through all the numerous styles in which you have created. Could you tell us the origin of that tendency? A: Well, I arrived at my present style after years of experimentation. Q: Would you tell us more about that? A: Yes, I started when I was a child. I used to tear clothing, papers, even the books I read, into thousands of pieces with scissors and razor blades. I also liked to shatter the windows, mirrors, and dishes with stones and a hammer. Q: You must have been a little demon around the house. What

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did you do after that? A: Later, I painted intricate pictures of the tiny networks found in leaves, butterfly wings, etc., with Chinese ink. These covered the entire paper and looked like giant webs. Later on, I cut out thousands of little faces from magazines and collected them in a box. Many years afterward, when I was in America, I made collages of these too. Q: What were some of the other materials you used in your more mature collages? A: I made many collages of postage stamps, airmail stickers, and paper dollars, in 1961. Q: Were these the works that made up your first one-man show in N.Y.? A: No, my first one-man show in N.Y. in 1959 consisted of my giant net-paintings. I showed five of these at the Brata Gallery. Q: Could you describe these paintings? A: My net-paintings were very large canvases without composition - without beginning, end or center. A monochromatic net would occupy the entire canvas. This endless repetition caused a kind of dizzy, empty, hypnotic feeling. Q: Why did you choose a non-compositional, monochromatic form of expression? A: I have no interest in the conventional logic and philosophy of art. I forgot all the theories of composition and color. This style resulted in empty, nihilistic canvases that the critics did not always understand. For example, Sidney Tillim called them impressionism, and Jack Kroll wrote, “potential resolutions have been launched by the Zen vigil.” But my paintings had nothing to do with impressionism or with Zen Buddhism. Anyway, I made net-paintings for several years. I guess I came under a spell. Q: You mean that you became in a sense overpowered by your own work? A: Well, you might say that I came under the spell of repetition and aggregation. My nets grew beyond myself, and beyond the canvases, I was covered with them. They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally, the whole universe. I was always

standing at the center of the obsession over the passionate accretion and repetition inside of me. Q: How large did your net-paintings finally get? A: One was 33 feet long. My 20-foot painting was at the International Show in the Amsterdam Museum 2 years ago. Q: What happened after you had made your 33-foot painting? A: This was when I began my ‘Aggregation’ sculpture. Each one took one month to make, so that much time was necessary to make enough for a show. Also, at that time, in 1962, I planned an environment based on the idea of aggregation. This was the environment at the Castellane Gallery in April 1964. Q: How does your recent sculpture continue that theme? Do you feel that it is along the same line of development? A: Oh, yes. My ‘Aggregation’ sculpture is a logical development of everything I have done since I was a child. It arises from a deep, driving compulsion to realize in visible form the repetitive image inside of me. When this image is given freedom, it overflows the limits of time and space. People have said that my ‘Aggregation’ sculpture presents an irresistible force, a force that goes by its own momentum once it has started. I give to this sculpture the name “Driving Image.” I feel as if I were driving on the highways or carried on a conveyer belt without ending until my death. This is like continuing to drink thousands of cups of coffee or eating thousands of feet of macaroni. This is to continue to desire and to escape all sorts of feelings and visions until the end of my days, whether I want to or not. I cannot stop living, and yet I cannot escape from death. This consciousness of living in continuation sometimes drives me crazy. It makes me sick before and after my work. On the other hand, I am deeply terrified by the obsessions crawling over my body, whether they come from within me or from outside. I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality. I am neither a Christian nor a Buddhist or anyone with great control over himself. I find myself being put into a uniform environment, which is strangely mechanized and standardized. I feel this strongly in highly civilized America and particularly so in New York. In the gap between people and the strange jungle of civ-

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ilized society lies many psychosomatic.problems. I am deeply interested in the background of problems involved in the relationship between people and society. My artistic expressions always grow from the aggregation of these. Q: I believe this is an excellent description of your sculpture, and that it expresses very well its emotional power. Now, suppose we leave the subject of art for a moment. Why did you come to the United States? A: In 1957, my dealer invited me here for a one-man show. But I really wanted to see a different country. I wanted to see how a giant country looks from the air. Q: What else did you notice about the United States? A: There is a special smell. Q: Smell? What is this smell? A: This is the smell of primitive nature combined with machines. It is a combination of smell. You have big open, natural spaces cut by railroad tracks and telephone wires. Q: Do you think Paris has a special smell? A: I have not been there yet, but in my imagination, it has an antique smell. They are surrounded by centuries of art and history. Q: Do your father and mother live in the United States? A: No, I have no family in the United States. They live in Japan. Q: What does your father do? A: My father is a businessman. Q: Did your family approve of your becoming an artist? A: No, they are very much against it. They think a woman should get married and settle down. They say the life of a serious professional artist is too hard for a girl. Q: Do you think you will be getting married soon? A: There are so many charming men in the United States that I find it difficult to pick one out. I love their blue eyes and blond hair.

Interview prepared for W.A.B.C radio by Gordon Brown, 1965

HALLUCINATION & DEATH Kusama by Yayoi Kusama

It was hallucination that drove me to paint. Since my childhood, nature, the universe, people, blood, flowers, and various other objects had a searing effect on my vision, hearing, and mind as some strange, remarkable and mysterious happenings, and captivated my whole life. These common and uncanny occurrences chased after me obsessively, driving me into half madness over many years. The only way to free myself from this unsettling state was to control me by visually reproducing on paper with pencils or paints these frightening occurrences, which brightened or darkened in the depth of the sea, excited my blood, and drove me to a fiery destruction. Since psychiatrists were not as readily available as they are today, I had nobody to consult with about the insecure feeling I had almost every day, hallucination and illusion that plagued me occasionally, my partial hearing defect, or asthma I was suffering from that was caused by the tension between me and the outside world. These were the secrets I did not want to divulge to anyone else. Talking about the man-woman relationship was a taboo, and the world of people seemed shrouded in mystery. The feeling of being cut-off from my parents and society was maddeningly irritating and unreasonable. In other words, I probably had a sense of despair about myself and the world around me already when I was in my mother’s womb. Painting pictures seemed to be the only reason to let me survive in this world and was a desperate attempt on my part to achieve this end. My motivation for painting, therefore, was far from being artistic, but primitive and instinctive. One day when I was a little girl, I found myself shaking with awe amid hundreds of violets. The violets with uncanny faces were talking with each other, just like human beings. Through spiritual intercourse with them, I soon became fascinated and, engulfed in the world of glittering illusion departing from this world. Realizing, however, that it was the real world and not the illusory one, I panicked and tried to run back home. But then my feet did not budge an inch. So confused was I, I felt as if my mind and body were being drawn into the unknown world. Finally, I reached the dark closet in my house, and when I gave a sigh of relief, “Was I scared!“ I felt it sounded like a dog’s voice. I went out into the garden and talked to the dog. Sure enough and to my surprise, I knew I had become a dog. Underneath the green duckweed in a weirdly quiet pond was a shadow that was trying to lure my soul. My soul was repeatedly drawn into the pond, and I was almost drowned in

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the end. It was a strange experience. Was it the tranquility of the precise moment when my soul was departing from my body? All through my life, I have been forced to wander obsessively between life and death, incessantly possessed by time and space. One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the table cloth on a table, and when I looked up, I saw the same patterns covering the ceiling, the windows, and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the whole universe. I felt as if I began to self-obliterate, revolve in the infinitude of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. Realizing it was what actually was happening and not just in my imagination, I was frightened. I knew I had to run away lest I should be deprived of my life by the spell of the red flowers. I ran desperately up the stairs. The steps below me began to fall apart, and I fell down the stairs straining my ankle. Dissolution and accumulation. Proliferation and fragmentation. The feeling of myself being obliterated and the reverberation from the invisible universe. What were they? I was also troubled by the thin grayish silken veil that often came to surround me. On the day this happened, people seemed to recede from me and looked small. I could not make out what I was saying to others. When I went out, I forgot my way home and had to spend the whole night in the darkness under the eaves of someone’s house. I lost the sense of time, speed and distance. I lost words and ended up locking myself in a room. Thus I became a more intractable “bad child.“ While fluctuating between this world and the unknown world, I fell sick many a time and became possessed by the act of creation. I painted pictures on paper and canvas and created odd objects. By doing these repeatedly, I gradually began to find the place for my soul. These experiences were not the mere temporary artistic occurrences, nor the acts of merely following the trends of the times like a chameleon. Still, they were an attempt at creativity based on the inevitability corning from inside of me. Action painting was the rage then, selling like pancakes at very high prices. Anybody and everybody was following suit. My belief was, however, that it was essential for building up my artistic career to create original work of art that came only from within myself. So I showed paintings that were contrary to the prevailing trend. It was in 1959 that I exhibited white “interminable nets” against the black background in a gallery on the Tenth Street downtown in New York amid a gallery district, where De Kooning and Kline used to have their studios.

The paintings had no composition, no centers.· The monotonousness produced by the repetitive patterns bewildered the viewers, and the hypnotism and the serenity that the paintings engendered lured them into the dizziness of “nothingness.” These paintings were a harbinger of the “Zero” movement, which subsequently became the rage in Europe and of Op Art, which was to become the dominant type of abstraction in New York. I had a desire to prophesy and estimate the infinitude of the endless universe from my position employing accumulating polka dots beneath the white nets. To what extent is the universe infinite, and with what depth of mystery? By perceiving those, I wanted to see my life, which is symbolized by one polka dot, or one particle among millions of others. In 1959 I issued a manifesto in which I declared that the white nets that were interlocked by an astronomical accumulation of polka dots would obliterate myself, others, and everything in the universe. These white nets enveloped dark, voiceless, black polka dots of death that were underneath them. I painted the nets from morning till night. When the canvas reached 33 feet long, they extended beyond it to cover the whole room, evolved into an “act” embracing the whole of me. The spell of polka dots and nets enwrapped me in a magic veil with a strange, invisible force. One day, an internationally-known French painter who achieved great success in Paris visited me at my studio. Seeing me at work, he cried, “Yayoi, there are so many other important things to do in this world like listening to Beethoven or Mozart, reading Kant or Hagel. What’ s the idea of doing this kind of meaningless work from morning till night? It’s waste of time.” But I had been spellbound by polka dots and nets, and had no ear to turn to that kind of remark. I had been determined to stake everything on them to revolt against the trends. Soon the nets went beyond the bounds of the canvas to cover the desks, the chairs, and the floor, and realized, in visible form, the dream of obsessional art I experienced in my childhood. Gradually, I was transformed from a painter into an environmental sculptor. My artistic development, genuinely original and genuine, like that of a pioneer obsessional artist, has been recorded by many art critics in contemporary art history. In 1963 and ’65, I had “Aggregation One Thousand Boats” show in New York (one-person show) and at the international ZERO show at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. A 10-meter long real boat was completely covered with many white protuberances. The ceiling and the walls surrounding the boat were all covered with 999 posters of the boat. The viewers standing in the room became seasick and hallucinated when those one thousand boats started to revolve around them.

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In 1963, I presented the “Driving Image” show. It was held in New York and European cities. It was around this time that I began to travel frequently between the U.S. and Europe. Commenting on the show, the New York Times wrote: “Kusama Explores New Area: Everybody must come to Kusama’s show.” I gained many supporters of my art in Europe, who had provided opportunities to show my works at various international shows and museum exhibitions before I landed there. My works were shown at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Städtisches Museum, Trier; Städtisches Museum, Leverkusen; Whitney Museum, New York; New York Museum of Modern Art; Chrysler Museum, Provincetown; De Cordova Museum, Boston; Philadelphia Museum; at significant museums in Europe with· traveling “American Representative Artists” show. I hat one-person-show in various parts of Europe; at “Contemporary American Artists Show” at Wesleyan University Museum; and many other museums including the Carnegie International Exhibition, American Woman Artists Show, among others.

Now the art with the theme of death. I began to embody my idea of obsessional art one after another by covering panties, shirts, coats, shoes, and protuberances with macaroni, food that was machine produced. I also covered bottles, tables, kitchen utensils and shoes with interminable nets to realize the theme, obsession of food and sex, in “Perseverance Forms”, “Compulsion Furniture”, “Obsession Room”, “Proliferation Vision”, “Space Obsession” and “Food Carpet.” They were exemplified in the imagery of flower motifs of the table cloth covering the telephone. Those flower motifs extended from the telephone, crept up the door behind it to cover the walls and the ceiling. At the “Driving Image” show, the floors were covered with macaroni. The macaroni-covered dogs ran frantically through the legs of the viewers who were frightened at the sound of macaroni cracking under their feet. The white protuberances were gradually transformed into those with red and blue zebra-like stripes and red polka dots, and into gold and silver ones. I had the pleasure of a visit by the late Sir Herbert Read of Britain to my shows, the “Driving Image” show in New York, and the earlier “Interminable Nets” show in Washington for which he was kind enough to write a message commending my art. He was always generous with his assistance and encouragement for my art. Following is the message I announced to the world then: “I feel as if I were driving on an endless highway until my death. It is like continuing to drink thousands of cups of cof-

fee served in an automatic cafeteria. I will continue to desire and, at the same time, to escape all sorts of feelings and visions until the end of my days. Whether I want to or not, I cannot stop living. And yet I cannot escape from death. The consciousness of living in continuation sometimes drives me crazy. It makes me sick before and after work. On the other hand, I am terrified by the obsession crawling over my body, whether they came from within me or from outside. I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality. I am neither Christian nor Buddhist nor anyone with great self-control. I find myself being put into a uniform environment, which is strangely mechanized and standardized. I feel this strongly in highly civilized America and particularly so in New York. In the gap between people and the strange jungle of civilized society lie many psychosomatic problems. I am deeply interested in the underlying causes of problems involved in the relationships of people, society, and nature. My artistic expressions always arise from the accumulation of such problems.” Motifs of food and sex were the rage in the New York art scene in the 1960’ s. By then, I had begun to create work using mirrors and plastics. I covered the walls of a room with mirrors and planted thousands of machine-sewn white protuberances with red polka dots on the floor. There emerged: solemn, strange “Wilderness of Phalli,” where the mirrors infinitely reflected the phalli. Viewers walked on the phalli barefoot. Integrated with the phalli, the viewers experienced the sensation of their bodies and movement becoming part of the sculpture, and in the strange, endless world they became captivated by the imagination of being put right in the middle of magnificent accumulation of sex, with red polka dots symbolizing sexual disease in a humorous way, in broad daylight. For the second part of the mirror series, I created an electric sculpture. Five-color lights located in the ceiling were turned on and off in an extremely high-speed cycle, each moment of which presenting changing color combinations. The multi-colored psychedelic image turned the whole room into a kaleidoscope and drove the people in the room into madness.

leading role, people came from all parts of the U.S., and so did reporters. The response to the happenings was tremendous. I believe happening is not just a passing event but is continuing to live still today. I have tried every possible means to pursue and embody millions of imagery of visions and illusions, to establish my artistic philosophy in the given period of my life. Staging happenings was also a means to recover me from the psychosomatic illness that had been plaguing me. Consequently, it had nothing to do internally with the established authority or the trends of the times such as pop art, action painting, etc. What I wanted to do was just to blossom as a bright red flower as of one who had lived one’s life to the fullest, just like a butterfly flies over the field and in the mountains in search of a place to die or silkworms emit silken threads. History clearly shows, however, that the flower-like me has always been treated as heretical. Whatever I do seems to cause misunderstanding and create scandal without my knowing it, and the more serious I become, the worse it seems to become the relationship between me and the world. I have been miserable in this world in whatever I do as an avant-garde artist. The walls of established systems and restrictions have always been difficult to dismantle. The falsehood of mass of people, distrust in politics, loss of humanity and confusion resulting from wars, the violence of mass media, pollution, etc.---spiritual deterioration of humankind always seems to cloud the bright future that lies ahead of us. I firmly believe that creative philosophy of art is ultimately born in solitary meditation, and rises from the quietude of soul to glitter in a myriad of colors.

This grand environmental sculpture embodied the ecstatic state of mind I experienced while I was wandering between life and death. I named it “Endless Love,” as the monument of love. It was the manifesto of my love in my lifetime. The reflections on the mirrors of the fast-changing color patterns of lights by the thousands and the tens of the thousands--aren’t they the illusory reflections of us living in this world? Once the lights have died out, the darkness that follows denies our kaleidoscopic pleasure of life and dazzling drama of humankind and lures our soul into the dark tranquility of death. Was the psychedelic light I saw a dream or an illusion? When I staged happenings in which the public was to play a

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Six pages typed biography, written for the Orez Gallery as press text, 1967. Collection Orez/Vogel Archive, The Hague

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ZERO AND YAYOI KUSAMA Henk Peeters interviewed by Tijs Visser

Henk, almost 40 years ago you first met Yayoi Kusama. I know you've been traveling a little less lately, and you lost interest in ZERO, but are you still in touch with her, have you been to any of her exhibitions? I have always maintained good contact with Yayoi, we sent each other invitations and until recently, when I had not yet auctioned all my works, I lent my works from her for exhibitions. I went to New York when Laura Hoptman made a large Kusama exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (2012). I think I last saw her there. She also no longer travels that much. Well, I haven't been so involved with ZERO lately. I like that you, my cousin, feel like working on an exhibition, but beware, there were many arguments between the artists, a lot of jealousy. You first saw Kusama’s work in the Udo Kultermann exhibition in Leverkusen. How did you get there, and what did you see there? Why were you so interested in the Monochrome? Well, I traveled a lot at that time, sometimes with students from the academy (Art Academy in Arnhem) where I taught. Also, for our group the NIG (Dutch Informal Group), which I had founded, with, among others, Jan Henderikse. He had lived in Cologne and Düsseldorf for a long time, even sharing a studio with Joseph Beuys and Gothard Graubner. Jan was well aware of what was happening in the galleries and museums. Actually, it was not the museums that were interesting, but the initiatives of artists such as Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. So, when there was an exhibition in a museum that my friends found interesting, I had to go there. Incidentally, I had already organized several shows for the NIG in Düsseldorf, Kassel and Munster: we found it exciting to exhibit in Germany, so shortly after the war, where something happened! To start, I have not seen Kusama’s exhibition; it was already over. I had written to Udo Kultermann that I was interested in his concept, so I was allowed to see some of the works in the basement of the museum. There was also a catalog with the artworks. That was an inspiring selection of works! You have to understand that (Williem) Sandberg showed the boys of Cobra in the Stedelijk; those wild painters, I really didn't like that. I then saw Kusama's work in the basement; well that was a freshening up, nothing wild or emotional, just business-like, small circles, repetitive. You wonder how to keep it up, a canvas full of rings. Around about this time I had stopped working with sand, thick paint, and plaster. I had just discovered plastic, white “Kaardlont,” which I attached in a series, on plastic panels. I did see a similarity with her work. Anyway, you asked about the exhibition. It made me fantasize. I had contact with Willem Sandberg of the Stedelijk. I

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was a member of the “New Image League,” with which we regularly had exhibitions at there. So, I first thought of introducing Kultermann's exhibition to Sandberg. But I also felt like making something myself. So, the idea came to do a monochrome exhibition, a show with white works, an exhibition without works… I spoke to colleagues in Germany about it, and everyone had their own ideas. The Germans were only too happy to go big; Yves Klein came up with proposals to show the Nouveaux Realist, and there were ideas to include the Gutai group. It was all about groups, collaborations, installations, taking over the museum! I then made some concepts and discussed them with Piero Manzoni, who proposed more Italian artists. Incidentally, he saw nothing in ZERO as the title for the exhibition: Manzoni preferred Nul. Probably also to prevent the Germans from gaining too much influence. But none of the artists were as outspoken for Kusama as I was. I first wrote to her gallery, and when I had direct contact with her, I corresponded with her directly and regularly. At first, just about practical matters, later it became more interesting, and we shared our ideas about colleagues and their work. What was clear was that Kusama was only too happy to exhibit in Europe; it turned out that she wrote letters to every gallery or artist to propose an exhibition of her work! She already knew that making art was her obsession but selling it was even more important. Incidentally, I think that she, like many of us, has become very cynical, and only produced for the art market. Well, we thought we could change the world with our art. "There must be a new art," wrote Armando. I wanted to counter that with "there must be a new public." And now Kusama had undoubtedly found this new public (sic)! You invited her to the first Zero exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum. What did she show there, and how did you get those works? Unfortunately, I could not invite her to come to Amsterdam. Sandberg only wanted to make the space available; he didn't have a cent to finance the exhibition, so he left that entirely to me. Yes, it was my idea, and I really wanted to make it an important exhibition, even though I, and many of us, had given up faith and hope in the museum institute. But the exhibition in Leverkusen and certainly the one in Trier gave me hope that we could achieve something with our art. So, I took the risk. I had my job at the Academy, so I was sure of my income. Kusama had just finished an exhibition where she showed those large monochrome “Net paintings,” something like in Leverkusen, which seemed like something to me. I remember we just attached those works to the wall with a stapler. That's what Sandberg had said, although he wouldn't advise this to his Cobra friends. He thought that our art would be thrown away after the exhibition: we wanted to make art, especially for the show! Paul Damsté, one of my students, has stapled Kusama's work to the wall. I don't know if many people observed the works, they were, except a red one, almost invisible (sic).

You asked her again, now to participate in the second Nul exhibition. Did she come to Amsterdam especially for that? Well, I had shown her work in several other exhibitions in the meantime. I was good friends with the various directors of the Orez Gallery in The Hague. First, Hans Sonnenberg, then Hans Sleutelaar, and then Albert Vogel and Leo Verboon. They had great confidence in me and saw that a new breath of fresh air was blowing with those ZERO artists. They too were disappointed with what the major museums were doing. Albert Vogel, the Bohemian, had useful contacts in The Hague with the nouveau riche. Hans Sonnenberg was from Rotterdam; he had already worked with Piero Manzoni; he knew many harbour barons. Hans Sleutelaar was a writer and journalist, so he knew the press. I showed Kusama in Arnhem, where I briefly had a gallery. She sent me her works, at her own expense, which I kept for my exhibitions. Occasionally I could sell something, but often I could not even pay the customs fees. But when I asked Kusama to send artworks, she did. She really wanted to! So, then she had to come to Amsterdam. In the meantime, I had arranged for her to exhibit at Orez. They had a wild idea, it had to do with eroticism. Well, that also suited my interest, and I made cuddly, soft , very tactile works that could be touched by the audience. And those penises from Kusama, which weren't actually penises, also came across as erotic. So, I persuaded the Orez Gallery to do something special with her so that she could stay longer in Holland. I think the Stedelijk had paid her the travel costs. Incidentally, there was now a new director, Edy de Wilde, and he had a curator, Ad Petersen, who was happy to bring Kusama to Holland. Martin Visser, an important collector who was also friends with Frits Becht, yet another collector, was an advisor, and we had a good team. When Kusama came to Amsterdam, unsurprisingly, she was a difficult woman; there is no other way to put so many circles on large canvases, than by being obsessive. She was also very difficult to communicate with; her English was incomprehensible, and she kept walking around when she had nothing to do. Because she was keen to do something else and I suggested she do another work commissioned by me. She produced a large white plastic canvas, through which she had woven carding twine. Not exactly my style, but I have kept it as an example of group work. Later she exhibited widely in the Netherlands, and did some performances, painting the naked body of Jan Schoonhoven with large dots. That was hugely exciting for us at the time: a little Japanese woman painting dots on people and mannequins, sticking spaghetti on clothes, and sewing objects with penises. You asked her afterward to participate in Zero on Sea, but after that, you worked little with her. Why? To begin with, not only me but many others were disappointed with what we could achieve with our art. Don't forget; we were all very optimistic; for Zero on Sea, the sky was

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the limit: Piene preferred to take art to the sky with his balloons. But the Zero guys had a fight, and there were a lot of tensions, not to mention Herman de Vries, who stole my address book. For me it was about my last exhibition in Orez, called La dernier exposition. I only made copies of my work. Other things were happening that were much more exciting than making art: the student movement, women's liberation, and the universities' reform. I was a bit more politically active again, started working for the NVSH, a foundation that helped with sexual problems. I was a therapist there. Well, that's probably why I also had a connection with Kusama [sic]. Those guys from Zero had nothing to do with her work; they kept doing cool works while Kusama undressed. By the way, I took her to the academy in Arnhem and made clothes with my students, from silver foil, with holes placed in the breasts. Later, Kusama turned them into a whole line of clothing... You know, it really wasn't about who was first. The good thing about Zero was that we were all so different. I worked with fire and discovered that Piene also did, Yves Klein told us that Aubertin also worked with fire. That was exciting, seeing that you can do so much other work with the same material. Well, I fought with Manzoni, who stole my idea to work with cotton wool. But then... I found what Kusama later made not really exciting; to take those portraits of celebrities, as Warhol did, who were badly painted, a kind of pointillism, and then covered with chicken-wire! She did that on the advice of a psychiatrist, so it looked like some sort of naive therapy art. I worked as an art therapist myself, so I knew what would come out if you let someone with a depression paint something. Dubuffet had such a beautiful collection, Art Brut, with many such works. I still spoke at the opening of her exhibition in the Orez Gallery. There those portraits hung behind chicken wire. Kusama always felt ignored, and wanted attention all the time, so I understand that chicken wire. But yes ... Afterward I worked more with my students; they had fresh ideas; I saw a future in education. We had done what we had to do, and it did not bring much. If I had wanted to achieve anything in the world, I would have had to go into politics. Well, Kusama has tried that once again!

Based on various recorded conversations with Henk Peeters about ZERO and Yayoi Kusama, between March 2005 and January 2006, Hall (NL)

KUSAMA FOR COMPANY Memories of Harrie Verstappen

All this is entirely from memory. Occasionally I may look up dates, years rather, to check—but that’s about all. For the most part, only my wife Willy, and I are in the know, hanging around at the time and experiencing Yayoi. And none of us have ever gone to the megalomaniacal trouble of writing a diary. Also, in those days, having dates imprinted on the original was a rare art. Many names have slipped my memory; many were unimportant to me at the time and seem even less important now. Willy has added her input; she was often together with Yayoi without me around, and vice-versa. Phase I – 1967/1968 I was living in Den Haag (The Hague). Just before Yayoi and I met, I quit an extremely well-paying job with a photo-publisher. My main clients were the two Dutch magazines Muziek Expres and TIQ. Working for the magazine Muziek Expres, I shot my now rather famous Kinks photographs, and Frank Zappa’s first performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, where I also managed to capture the fabulous Jefferson Airplane lightshow. My brother Jan, who freelanced as a writer for the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, called and told me about this artist Kusama Yayoi having a show at Orez Gallery in The Hague. Whether I’d be interested in going over and doing an article. I called Orez and arranged an appointment at her pension (boarding house) where she was staying during her exposition. We met at breakfast and got on fabulously from the start. She took two sandwiches from her plate and sprayed her famous polka dots on them, which was one of the first slides I took.

Pension (boarding house), The Hague, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen I used two Zeiss Ikon Contaflexes with Color Pantar lenses at the time, one loaded with Ektachrome color slide film, one with Kodak Tri-X B/W negative, and we took some color, some B/W pictures before moving out to the gallery a hundred meters or so away. Once there, I realized that any idea of doing B/W was impossible: that show just screamed out for color. We did some poses in there before moving to a sidestreet next to the gallery. That’s where she decorated the car with polka dots, with me merrily snapping shots. She had this little purse with props, like pre-cut colored cardboard polka dots, Scotch tape and cans of spray paint. Finally, at my request as I remember, she sprayed those polka dots on the herringbone pattern bricks of the street. Let me get that straight. In all co-operations, it’s often hard to say who first came up with a particular idea. You might just throw out a vague thought which is crystallized by another, or in this case the other party. No matter how the chemistry worked, we both felt it worked quite well. After the session, which may have taken two or three hours at the most, Yayoi offered me some green tea at the gallery and we agreed to meet again to take a look at the results. So, after a couple of days, Yayoi was in my living room looking at the slides. I’ve beem developing and printing color and B/W myself ever since I had the means to, and was working on the B/W prints, which I took over to her after gloss-drying. Again, as far as I remember, I suggested she decorate some of them and no matter who thought of it first, she jumped at the idea. Out came the magic markers and off she went. In my recollection, she worked on four or five prints, two of which are still in existence, to my knowledge. I kept one, the best of course, for TIQ magazine and Yayoi went off with the rest.

Pension (boarding house), The Hague, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Yayoi also wanted to do one of the Dutch queen, Juliana, I think it was then, but we never got that show on the road.

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Near the Orez Gallery, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

The RVD Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst (Government Information Service) was very paranoid when I called to ask if I could have a print for that purpose. You must realize this was at the time of the Amsterdam Provos, who made a lot of noise and, in the process, a real nuisance of themselves. Of course, RVD could only figure that we were out to ridicule the queen! Yayoi was very impressed with my work. I especially remember her remarks on that photograph with a mannequin’s hand in front of her in the background. She said something like ...that’s very good, “that hand attacking my sex. You’re a very good photographer. You have great understanding.”

Near Orez Gallery, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Harrie Verstappen, marker-drawing by Yayoi Kusama

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The following adventure was her body-painting gig in Amsterdam at Wim van der Linden’s nightclub on the Rembrandtplein, where she went to decorate some nude guys with polka dots. Somehow, the only nude female I remember being there ended up in the background of a photograph, peeking over someone’s shoulder. It was a weird

scene, squares watching with amused detachment how the hippies had their so-called “happening.” We then drove my big 1958 Chevrolet BelAir to Utrecht, where there was some great event with lots of pop groups on different stages and an audience of aspiring hippies.. Something like Woodstock, but indoors in a large hall. I used to call that sort of thing a “giant fuck-up.” This event was called Flight to Lowlands Paradise. What she planned to do there was paint some more people in the nude. But the management of the giant fuck-up got very paranoid and practically threw her off the stage, because they were terrified the cops would close the show down. This made Yayoi feel very frustrated; I think she wouldn’t have minded a little ruckus with the cops at all—good publicity! There was nothing left to do but pack up and drive back to The Hague. A while later, we paid a visit to the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, where she had yet another show. There we played around mostly with the almost equally famous goldand silver-colored phallic girls. She struck some rather suggestive poses which, looking back, I haven’t seen her do anywhere else.

some photographs. Yayoi was staying in Bunnik, a village near Utrecht, with a psychiatrist and his wife, in a very austere, concrete place that strongly reminded me of a bunker, but with a decidedly Japanese touch. We did a couple of shots in the house, then more in the garden and further out into the surrounding countryside. Yayoi, who explained that she needed the photographs to illustrate an article she was writing for a Japanese magazine, has always been just about the best model I ever worked with. The psychiatrist seemed mildly amused at the goings on, a fact that later turned out to explain why she wanted to get away from there. Yayoi called again a few days later. Not only because, as expected, she wanted to get her hands on the photographs, but also because (much to my surprise) she wanted to come and stay with us, if possible. She must have stayed there half a year, maybe nine months, until the exhibition at Orez Gallery was over and done with. For her, it was a relief, as she explained that the psychiatrist found her most interesting to observe and kept watching all her actions whenever he was around. This drove her nuts.

Not so long afterward, she went back to New York and gave me a 1953 painting as a present. We exchanged several letters in that period, but there’s little more to tell until she returned to Holland in what I figure must have been 1970. Phase II – 1970/1971 In the meantime, Willy and I had met and married and set up in Scheveningen, Holland, an old fisherman’s village to the west of The Hague, by the sea. It’s famous because of the Mesdag Panorama. We lived in an old bank building with plenty of space. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from Yayoi: she was back in Holland and asked if I wanted to come and see her, take

Psychiatrist’s house, Bunnik, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

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Psychiatrist’s house, Bunnik, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

Look, apart from being a rather interesting character, truth be told, Yayoi is not the most stable person I’ve ever met. People often ask us how it was to have Yayoi around. It was okay, just about sums it up. Willy even says “it was FUN!” This seems to surprise them. “Yayoi is such a difficult character, she throws tantrums, her will be done.” That’s what we hear, at least; I wouldn’t know. Once, the three of us were driving around in the 2CV and she got quite excited, yelling “Stop! Stop!” She’d spotted a weed that, in Holland, often grows on disturbed ground where road- or construction work is going on. “Oh, great delicacy in Japan!” So we harvested a bunch to take home and cook; she was right. Willy also learned how to make Kusama dresses. It’s easy once you know how, as it so often is. But that’s only what Willy claims, she’s a pretty handy and clever (and attractive) woman, after all. At any rate, she made one for herself and it was quite a hit. One Sunday afternoon, when that loony-doctor and his wife came to visit and find out what scene Yayoi was part of now, she organized a fashion show with a couple of visitors staying with us and the neighbours. This is what they’d call

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a happening in those days. First we moved to the back yard, then, out into the streets where the natives more or less joined us. On several occasions, we went out and shot some photographs somewhere. Often just walking around town, along the fisherman’s harbor, wherever. Then we made a couple of real expeditions, of which I mention the trip to Amsterdam, where we shot the Damn Hippie Kusama Orgy Happening. We just walked along the street, the two of us, and when something caught our attention she struck a pose, I snapped a shot and we were on our way again. Here, too, I have to remark on how I often hear what a pest Yayoi was for photographers to work with. We never had any problems, but she really seems to nag the hell out of them. Everything must be done exactly to her specs. Amazing to hear, for me. Those hippies reading the Kusama Orgy, like the guy driving by on his moped, were just requisitioned. Kusama fashion dresses and Orgy papers were handed out and collected again after the scene had been directed and shot; she

stopped that moped and hopped on the back. She built the scene, I recorded it. Then there was the trip to Utrecht, to Kasteel Nieuw-Linschoten. It was owned by some relation of an Orez Gallery owner. Yayoi used it mainly as a background to show off her fashion. For some reason, I used B/W only. That was when I shot one picture that’s a favourite of Willy and me, Spirit Girl Emerging from Hollow Tree. The best of three shots, Yayoi liked it very much as well. She wove a fantasy around it about the spirit of a Japanese girl, having traveled through the earth to look for her lost Dutch sailor lover, finally emerging from that hollow tree. By the end of 1970, my brother Wim was ready to start making the movie: Blue Movie. His art director stopped by our place in Scheveningen to pick up the Marilyn Monroe painting for use on the set. It looked great! But later, they wanted to fob Yayoi off with a mention in the title sequence. But Yayoi was in need of cash. She commented, “My name come up in small letter like that, I don’t care! I need money!” Not long afterward, the show opened in Orez Gallery. The

Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1970, Harrie Verstappen with Kusama. Photo by Ira Sherwin Moore show, which was Yayoi together with a German painter, was a total flop. Yayoi was especially surprised that not only she, but also the German guy, didn’t sell a single painting, as his stuff was very sexy. So that was more or less the temporary end of her career in Holland. She’d really hit bottom and decided to leave. She may have gone to New York first, I just don’t remember. Gradually, our correspondence petered out and Willy and I more or less figured “that was that,” without giving it too much thought. The only contact we’ve had with Yayoi since are her New Year’s cards, which she sends around to anybody on her mailing list, of course.

Spirit Girl Emerging from Hollow Tree, 1970. Photo by Harrie Verstappen

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Written in 2017, and edited for this publication. Published in full-length in Kusama Love Forever, ed. Tijs Visser, MER. B&L publishers, Ghent, 2020

KUSAMA’S KEY CONCEPTS: INFINITY NET AND SELFOBLITERATION Antje von Graevenitz*

Kusama’s studio, New York, around 1963. Photos by Hall Reiff, collection 0-archive

*Antje von Graevenitz is a specialist in the history of 20th- and 21stcentury art; she firstly taught as a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (1977-1989) and secondly as a professor at the University in Cologne (1989-2005). She has published widely in books, museum catalogs, and art journals, and focuses on ephemeral, interdisciplinary and anthropological art topics related to rites of passage, philosophy, music, and theater.

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“Infinity” does at least exist as a word, which allows it to be juggled with in sentences. But can this scarcely conceivable vastness also exist as a picture? Could visual expression prove more concrete than the abstract word? Infinity cannot even be imagined. As a picture it will always be outwardly limited in some way, whether by edges, a frame, or by some kind of spatial boundaries. But perhaps the visual representation can come across as unlimited, and thus inspire contemplation? With the title for her paintings, Infinity Net, the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama constantly evokes limitlessness. Her home country is of course an important nation of fishers. Nets are no strangers to her. Yet the poetic word combination “Infinity Net” seems self-contradictory: does infinity first have to be “caught” in a net? Or has it already entered the net and is now right there in front of the viewer’s eyes, as it were, in the net of a picture, or the net of an artwork? Or is infinity like flowing water—streaming both behind the net, out into an never attainable distance, and simultaneously through the meshes to the viewer, right to the front of the picture? Catching water with a net will never succeed, so why should it be any different with infinity? Absurd as they may be, such possibilities are at least romantic, humorous and poetic. This hybrid expression is nowhere to be found in philosophical definitions. “It is solely Kusama’s achievement,” says Heinz Mack, her European artist colleague from the days of ZERO.1

Infinity Net Kusama’s “achievement” has far-reaching roots and ramifications, like a rhizome: an episode from the documentary film Kusama: Infinity from 2018 shows the artist stooped over a net she is painting, probably as she has always done, after 2 she had taken on a small 191 studio in 1958 in New York. Kusama had been able to do so only after she had written to the painter Kenneth Callahan in Seattle in 1955, enclosing nine watercolors in her letter.3 She had also corresponded with Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico, but apart from an encouraging reply on December 3, 1955 and the warning that even in the USA it was not easy for young artists to make a living, she received no help from that quarter. Unlike Seattle: convinced by her watercolors, Callahan helped Kusama get a solo exhibition in 1957 at the Zoë Dusanne Gallery, where instead of Infinity Nets she showed paintings that she designated as “oriental mystic symbolism.” Just one painting from 1948, titled Flower Spirit, evinced a net structure along its lower margin, but it did not extend across the entire surface.4 Kusama did not give up, she wanted at all costs to travel to the USA. She again asked O’Keeffe to work her connections and assured her in her letters that she wanted to forge her way to a new form of painting. O’Keeffe was unable to arrange anything for her, but Kusama managed by herself. In 1957 she flew from Japan, initally to Seattle in order to see her exhibition at Dusanne’s. She scarcely had any knowledge of English at that time. Her works were swiftly handed on to Boston and Washington, and just six months later, in 1958, she tore up her return flight ticket and

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with the help of a small stipend from Japan began work in New York City. For her it was a “living hell.”5 She lived largely by scavenging vegetables: “Food was of secondary importance.”6 Equipped with a student visa, she attended the Art Students League of New York, and then the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the Washington Irving School, although she had received full training in Japan and exhibited there on a number of occasions. Evidently her work convinced: already that year she participated in group shows in New York and in 1958 she was awarded a solo show at the Brata Gallery, which was then passed on to Gallery One in Baltimore. In the aforementioned film documentary, which portrays Kusama in her old age, the opening shots show her in the same manner from 1958, painting countless tiny net lines on the picture support—mostly as small, tightly packed arches —over and over in a seemingly Sisyphean task, until a net actually appears before her eyes. At first she still used black on white, but soon she chose stronger contrasts, such as red/yellow, or green/blue. Once finished, the black/white Infinity Nets were painted over with a thin glaze, which makes them look as if they are emerging from a mist. The swirling structure extends to form endless fields and seems to elude the viewer’s gaze. Kusama soon extended the mesh structures so as to cover entire walls, as if that would grant an insight into something that cannot be grasped physically or mentally, and convey a true impression of the matter. But the catch is unrewarding, remains wishful thinking. But if the viewer’s eyes concentrate on the individual details, the net proves fruitful. When painting, Kusama lets not only a string of small “and-and-and-and-and” curves come into being, but also now and then excrescences and little hillocks from the oil paint left on her brush. She already did this in 1958: the small curves and also the interstices as tiny particles of background color are never really all of a piece: they have each been given their individual characters from the hand of the painter, forming an incomparable number of individual yet contiguous details. The traces left by her hand allow as it were their places to be distinguished in the net. The subject of infinity had kept Kusama in thrall, regardless of whether she 1.) paints nets, 2.) lets phallic-like organisms sprout as it were from clothes, furniture, and even a boat, 3.) covers people and her surroundings with polka dots, and 4.) seeks to extend these elements into increasingly unfathomable dimensions by means of mirrors, using them to suck in not only herself but also the beholder. As such, the subject of limitlessness has undergone an almost linear development in her work, even though the latter resists being pinned down by Isms. The categories it has spanned are too diverse: painting, gestural painting, pattern painting, material art, poème-objets as in Surrealism, monochromy, ZERO, environments, happenings, Pop art, street art, non-art, anti-art, light spaces, staged photography, soft sculpture, feminist art, and much more. But it would be wrong simply to discern formal categories and find the flaws in the categorisations, instead of what she herself associates with her key concepts: Infinity Net and self-obliteration. When Sir Herbert

Read—a respected art critic of his day—defined Kusama’s art on March 13, 1964, he concentrated solely on one part of the title of her paintings: “Those early paintings, without beginning, without end, without form, without definition, seemed to actualize the infinity of space.”7 Read failed to see the crux of the matter, the (absurd) idea of being able to catch infinity in a net, which is exactly what constitutes Kusama’s poetry. In her autobiography and numerous conversations, Kusama has mentioned two reasons for her kind of painting that are both intimately connected with her life. On the one hand, she repeatedly explains that she could only cope with her fits of depression and insomnia, from which she has suffered since childhood and which have constantly driven her to psychiatric treatment, through her obsession to keep on forever depicting the same thing. “The struggle is endless,” she wrote.8 On the other hand, she tells how she received the inspiration for her Infinity Net from the structure of the ocean waves she saw during her flight from Japan to the USA in 1957. Both reasons are worthy of deeper consideration: Kusama was never regarded as an exponent of Outsider Art. She developed her work in a very resolute manner, so much so that it must be left to her to decide whether this aspect of her art is to be regarded as an expression of illness, however much pity it may engender in her readership. Fellow artists such as Christian Megert recall her anxieties when she visited him in 1962, together with the artist Nanda Vigo.9 Megert even discovered a revolver concealed in the sash of her kimono, and her hallucinations led Kusama to make several suicide attempts in New York. But her medical history offers no explanations for the actual nature of her art, even if a lot of space is devoted to this biographical aspect in the publications on her. Countless other artists have been obsessive about their art (such as Picasso and Dalí), and some have also sought psychiatric help (one need only think of Pollock). Art history would be much the poorer if one wielded the illness factor as a means of dismissing large portions of art. There would be less to see, less to think about and less to experience. So what else is there for the viewer to discover, over and beyond this? Kusama’s inspiration on seeing the ocean, together with the title Infinity Net, lead to a broad stream of art history that produced its own distinct conventions in Japan and Europe. Yet viewed from the present, these were contrary correspondences because they not only lead to different kinds of artwork, they are also propelled by intentions with different nuances. The codes alone often seem comparable, so that in Europe in the 1960s Kusama was welcomed with open arms. Was it because of her nationality? People in the West were developing an interest in Japanese culture and religion. Kusama however has constantly resisted any suggestion in her interviews that she is in any way connected with Zen Buddhism.10 Which does not prevent Midori Yamamura from supposing that with her interest in John Cage’s beliefs, Kusama was nevertheless interested in the Western interpretation of Zen Buddhism.11 One can however begin by assuming a relationship between her paintings and the religious

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culture of Japan, because a part is played in both the traditional art and the philosophy of the island nation by either the depiction of water (in the colored woodcuts by Hiroshige and Hokusai), or the concept of “infinity.” In her younger days, the philosopher Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945) taught in Kyoto, where Kusama was unwillingly forced to enrol in 1948 at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts to train in the sometimes rather saccharin tradition of nihonga, which eventually she completely abandoned for outlandish grid paintings and abstract natural formations. Nishida likewise broke with the dominant line of Zen and initially sought inspiration from nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophers, as for instance Martin Heidegger. In line with his famous Kyoto School of philosophy, Nishida taught that one can come to know oneself (in one’s nullity) by the contemplation of infinity. He did not speak of a net. It is possible that Kusama studied this teaching, or at least took note of it. Even so, she was soon to adopt a very different position. Shortly after, she named her goal “self-obliteration.” It became her glimpse of hope and thus the exact opposite of the philosopher’s standpoint: obsessively painting her Infinity Nets was obviously aimed not at self-knowledge, but at overcoming it. Although Kusama always declared that with her art, which she pursued with great perseverance, she hoped to surmount her personal crises, she never meant that her art had a direct connection with them as regard visual content. People argued differently in Europe: Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker [= Fragments of the Presocratics], for instance, met with great interest in Germany when it appeared in 1957 in paperback, and in particular the first axiom of Anaximander (c. 610–546 B.C.), which states that all the fundamental elements balance out in infinity, inasmuch as infinity is the principle and beginning of all things because the apeiron (the limitless) is beyond death and decay.12 Plutarch adopted Anaximander’s tenets and explained further that infinity is as such an expression of the universe.13 Although Giordano Bruno returned to these ideas in the Renaissance, it remained for the philosophers of antiquity to once again capture the mood of European thought in the 1960s. After the hideous destruction and crushing burden of guilt brought about by World War 2 and the Holocaust, it was common among philosophers and visual artists to connect infinity with the aspiration to be one with cosmic non-spaces, and in that way to absolve themselves of worldly guilt and pettiness. A new generation was in search of a new spirituality after the suffering wrought by fascism.14 But the idea that infinity could also be made visible was shared by other artists at that time, above all Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein and ZERO group members Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker and Otto Piene in Düsseldorf, along with their European friends, in particular Henk Peeters, Armando, Jan Schoonhoven and, marginally, Jan Henderikse from Gruppe Nul in the Netherlands. Fontana, who in 1947 called in his Manifesto blanco for a synthesis in the arts embracing all the physical elements, such as color, motion, time and space, and soon after introduced real, intangible space into the pic-

Otto Piene Frequenz (Silber), 1957 Oil on canvas 40.5 x 30.5 cm Collection Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld

Piero Dorazio Atlantic Puff, 1960 Oil on canvas 195 x 96.5 cm Collection Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart Yayoi Kusama Net-painting, 1959 Oil on canvas 131.5 x 117 cm Former collection Günther Uecker

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Yves Klein Monochrome blanc sans titre (M 115), 1956 Pigment and synthetic resin on gauze mounted on board 27.2 x 21 cm Private collection

Günther Uecker Informelle Struktur, 1957 Nails and plaster on canvas on wood, sprayed 100 x 70 cm Collection Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Piero Manzoni Achrome, 1961 Natural fiber 25.5 x 21 cm Gift from Manzoni to Henk Peeters, and from Peeters to Yayoi Kusama Private collection

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ture by slashing and perforating the surface, supported the young Kusama to the best of his abilities in the early 1960s. Fontana wrote: “The discovery of the cosmos is a new dimension, it’s the infinite: so by making a hole in this canvas, which was at the basis of all the arts, I have created an infinite dimension, an x that is for me the basis of all Contemporary Art.”15 Other artists also turned their minds to the topic of infinity after Constantin Brancusi erected his Colonne sans fin (Endless Column) (1933–1935) in the Romanian town of Tirgu Jiu. Piero Manzoni painted a Linea di lunghezza infinita, (Line of Infinite Length) in 1960 on a length of industrial paper. Once it is rolled up in its container, it is so heavy that apparently it is unopenable. In September of the previous year, Yves Klein set down his aims, which could never reach far enough: “… I seek an immaterial realism. The bodiless yet firm zones of my artistic sensibility, which is moreover transportable and can be extended to infinity….”16 As proof, he cloaked the entire globe in his special blue, which supposedly embodied the zone of infinite sensibility. The idea of the limitless also suggested itself to the ZERO artists: Piene tells of the inspiration he received already at the end of the war, directly after he was demobbed, of the impression he had of an endless sheet of water on the Elbe that sparkled in the light: For some time I was stopped in my tracks, in a state of the utmost inner excitement, before I was able to ap proach the river [...]. I walked from the east to the dyke that obscured the view to the west, before reaching its crest. I entered the gate and was suddenly dazzled and transformed. Lying before me, sumptuously lit by the sun, was the silvery-white expanse of water under an endless sky, shimmering in the full glory of the light and stretch ing out clear as a mirror into what seemed to be immeas urable distance.17 Over a decade later, in 1959, he captured this experience in his initally yellow, then monochrome white paintings in which the dots are arranged in such a way that the viewer perceives them as a line that seems to describe a distance extending flat out towards the horizon and to vibrate with light. Piene was still influenced by this experience when he defined the group’s “new idealism”: “zero is the incommensurable zone where the old state turns into the new.”18 Mack called such manifestations “vibrations” (in keeping with the Futurist tradition set down in the 1909 manifesto) and wrote in March 1959: “pure motion is oblivious to the relativity of boundaries and mass; without direction and topicality, it keeps to itself: that is its vibration ….”19 The concept of vibration so often used by the ZERO artists was not unfamilar to Kusama. Yet however much people were enthused over the infinite and vibrations,20 no one in Europe ever mentioned her “catch”: the talk was more of liberating the mind, which was clearly thought to be infinite.21 In the Netherlands, Kusama found a tireless champion and curator in the artist and academy tutor Henk Peeters. This was the start of a long friendship. In Germany, Udo Kultermann, the director of Museum Schloss Morsbroich in Leverkusen, helped her gain a foothold—which in both cases

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had its reasons and consequences. In 1960, just one year after Kusama commenced work in New York, her advocates became admirers of her Infinity Nets, independently of one another. They both felt drawn to the unfathomable visual dimension of the paintings, which was married with a new credibility of style. Were they thinking of the same thing that Kusama was? There were shared predilections and points of contact. Japanese culture was highly thought of at the time in Europe. The atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not been forgotten. Above all French artists traveled there, not least Yves Klein. And a number of books appeared in Europe on Japanese traditions and views on life, such as Eugen Herrigel’s short Zen in the Art of Archery (first published in German in 1948), which went through numerous editions, translations of Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, and in 1961 Michel Tapié’s and Tôre Haga’s book Continuité et avant-garde au Japon.22 The authors of this magnificently illustrated tome constantly emphasize the Zen character of Japanese art, and they also included a work by Kusama, even though she had never admitted to any allegiance to Zen. Perhaps for that reason the authors said little more about her than that she lived in New York. The reproduction is curious in that the picture surface is divided up into several sections, with in each case the Infinity Net showing a different density. Kusama was soon to dispense with compositional strategies for the nets, and simply extended them out over the picture surface, inducing a “dizzy, empty, hypnotic” effect in the viewer.23 Perhaps Kusama’s compositional intervention in the expanses of the Infinity Net is not a contradiction when one remembers that the Japanese word for “infinity” also has the meaning of the totality and immensity of the universe as a unity of all its parts.24 She “caught” as it were the parts of the universe in the net of the painting. So Kusama met up with kindred spirits in Europe. In 1959 Kultermann wrote to the Brata Gallery in New York and asked for one or two of her paintings for the exhibition he was planning for 1960 on a rising international art trend, Monochrome Painting. According to the catalog, Kusama sent him Composition 65a, but it is quite possible that the curator chose the title. If however it is from Kusama, it gives pause for thought: instead of being titled Infinity Net, the painting had the typically western designation “composition,” which has been used to legitimise a work as work of art ever since Wassily Kandinsky named his abstracts “compositions” in 1912, at a time when musical synaesthesia was important to him. All of the visual elements, regardless of whether colored or shaped, could evoke sounds in the mind, or so he contended. By the early 1960s, this synaesthetic perspective was largely forgotten, as was the case for Kusama. A composition was now nothing more than the distribution of the pictorial elements, however intended. But due to the thin layer of glaze applied over the painted net, and to its “all-over” structure, a term which ever since Pollock’s drippings and Philipp Guston’s seemingly woven pictures had led to the abandonment of all specifications regarding top and bottom, Kusama’s work fitted the Euro-

pean idea of monochromy, alongside Manzoni, Klein and Mack. Apart from which, Kusama had called her first New York exhibition at the Brata Gallery Obsessional Monochrome, and thus drawn Kultermann’s attention to her work and to precisely this meaning of “monochrome.”25 As he pointed out in his opening speech at Museum Schloss Morsbroich, he felt it was possible to “use art to overcome art” and open up new paths.26 This however was very much in line with the new beginning that ZERO had discussed, and not in keeping with the somewhat absurd spirituality in Kusama’s Infinity Net. Kusama traveled neither to Leverkusen, nor to Galerie 59 in Aschaffenburg, where three of her paintings were exhibited in 1961 with the titles NO. White OX, 1960; NO. 2 J.B., 1960 and Number H. Red, 1961.27 She likewise participated in group shows in Trier, Leiden, Rotterdam and Antwerp in 1962 without actually going to them. Peeters, who in 1960 was also involved in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, got the advice from his collegue Jan Henderikse to travel to Leverkusen and discovered her paintings there,28 and tried in vain to convince the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to take on the Leverkusen exhibition. The following year he wrote to the gallerist Stephen Radich in New York after finding Kusama’s name in a gallery advert in the May 1961 edition of the magazine Cimaise, and invited her to participate first of all in 1962 in the exhibition Accrochage ’62 at his Galerie A in Arnhem. That same year, Peeters managed to persuade Willem Sandberg, the director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, to mount a Nul exhibition (alternatively titled nul 62)29 on new approaches in art, in which Kusama was also to be included with a white on black net painting titled White XXA (1961). Sandberg had a two week gap to fill in his program, and was not unwilling to give the young, almost unknown artist a chance for that short period, so long as she covered the costs herself.30 Despite the half-heartedness of the offer, it was taken up. The result was a legendary exhibition, dominated more or less by monochromes.31 Kusama contributed an Infinity Net and met with so much acclaim that her works were shown that same year in group shows at the LAK Galerie in Leiden and Galerie ’t Venster in Rotterdam. This was followed in 1963 by Galerie Amstel in Amsterdam, and in 1964 by Galerie Delta in Rotterdam, the Rhedens Lyceum in Velp, and then Galerie 47 in Amsterdam. As Laura Hoptman has observed, it was easier in the 1960s to see Kusama’s works in Europe, where she participated in some twenty exhibitions, than in the USA. The big museums and galleries at that time on the far side of the Atlantic continued to turn their backs on her.32 Although she was fiercely promoted by Peeters, and the Düsseldorf ZERO artists, Mack, Piene and Uecker enjoyed being photographed with her, she later stated that she had no special relationship with them.33 She felt like an outsider, wherever she went, although she did note that above all Lucio Fontana gave her real help. While many of the ZERO artists felt that there was a common ground to their approaches, Hans Haacke saw Kusama’s work as more “East Asian” in style34—an opinion Kusama did not share. She ex-

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plained her view that her work could appeal to people the world over in a somewhat abstract manner: “When this image is given free, it overflows the limits of time and space.”35 Infinity Nets Everywhere Kusama’s Infinity Nets were prophetic: it would be banal to point to the comprehensive networking of our environment today, although that relates not to art but to the immaterial Internet. In the 1960s it was a new concept, and Kusama was in any case focused not on technology but on a principle of existence. In those days her netted environments had a distinctly melancholy air, however bright and cheery they seemed at first. Her environment staged in 1966 at Galerie M. E. Thelen at Bertoldstraße 9, Essen, where Udo Kultermann worked as an advisor, was more like a small showroom with three naked female mannequins on tiptoe and a child-like doll. It was titled Driving Image Show.36 The figures were not extolling any wares, they simply stood there between articles of furniture and a yellow ladder in a kind of delocalisation or dislocation, as if talking and gesticulating with one another, while one figure seemed be about to hand over a flower (to the viewers?). This private, lifeless world was now completely caught up in the painted net. Only the models’ wigs, the mirror of a dressing table, and the floor under a thick cover of macaroni, had been left unpainted and were thus outside the network. And when the artist placed herself among them, she too seemed to have descended into this surreally alien realm and to be quite at home. Her self-forgetfulness and food obsession announced themselves here. “I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality,” because, as she added, she felt that “I, myself, delight in my obsessions.”37 Hybrid Worlds of Things with Phalli and Macaroni Environments like the one in Essen had been introduced as an art form by Allen Kaprow in 1960 in New York. Kaprow had for his part taken inspiration from the Japanese Gutai group, but his Garage Environment of that year also presented “possible” chaotic piles of paper, along with genuinely hanging knotted nets, as objects existing in reality. Kaprow was exaggerating “throwaway culture” here. Nothing was painted or fashioned with artificial figures in advance, as Kusama had done. Yet Kaprow also included Kusama’s environment From the Driving Image from 1964 two years later in his epochal book Assemblage, Environments & Happenings.38 A customary set of furniture had been grotesquely transformed to create an unexpectedly eerie atmosphere. There had also been environments prior to this in Europe: Lucio Fontana occupied himself with the art form from 1949 onward, as did Otto Piene in his Light Ballet around 1960, and Wim T. Schippers with his Salt Room (de zoutvloer) at Amsterdam’s Museum Fodor in 1962. Yet none of these focuses of encounter involved a defamiliarised world of things the way Kusama’s environments did. The latter must be understood in the light of her own personal development.

Christo Package on a Table, 1961 Fabric, lacquer, rope and round wooden table 107.2 x 42 x 42 cm Collection Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Yayoi Kusama. Untitled, 1963 Metal shelf and found objects coated in plaster and acylic on sewn and padded cloth 107 x 79 x 55 cm Private collection

Günther Uecker Nageltisch, 1964 Nails on wooden table, sprayed 73 x Ø 75 cm Collection Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

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Atsuko Tanaka Sakuhin (Work), 1959 8th Gutai Art Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, 1959 Photo Gutai Art Association, Ashiya Akira Kanayama Buro (Ball), 1956 (Replik 1965) Marker on vinyl, air 350 x 140 x 45 cm Exhibited 1965 in Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Photo by Ad Petersen, collection 0-archive

Kusama installing her Polka Dot Love Room at the Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 1967. Photo by Theo van Houts, collection Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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In 1961 she began to interpret the tiny protuberances, along with little crater shapes, that her oil paint conjured up on her monochrome picture surfaces (as for instance in Accumulation No. 18a), as tentacles or phalli. She made small linen sacks, stuffed them with cotton batting and then stiffened them with white gesso. Initially she was helped by Donald Judd, although she had already learnt the necessary sewing techniques in 1944 during World War 2, when she had had to sew parachutes in a military factory.39 She now used these sculptural motifs to cover her world of things. Even a single mannequin, such as her golden Phallic Girl from 1965, was given these protuberances scattered about her body; the gold paint of Kusama may have served as a reminder of the golden body of the Buddha, who traditionally conveys in this way that it is not him.40 Phallic Girl was later exhibited in 1968 at Galerie Hake in Cologne. Paintings, bits of furniture, a ladder, shoes, containers and even a rowing boat now came to be covered with vast quantities of these protuberances. She first showed her phallic “Soft Sculptures” in 1962 at the Green Gallery in New York. Viewed superficially, one could say it was just her own particular hype, because no one else at that time dared to work with such forms. Viewed individually, each phallus had a slightly different, irregular shape; like little worm-like aliens, they curve towards the viewer as they rampantly propagate. Yet they do not deny their handmade origins, thus making them even more absurd and comical. Their “thousandfold” independence, living as they do free of a body, is not so much powerful as rather dreamy, albeit an intriguing dream. As such, it does not amount to a field of male energy. And it will only seem vulgar to those who view phalli as vulgar. It would take a fool to think of just one thing and not crack an unbiased smile when faced with this exuberant excess. As with the Infinity Nets, they seem never to stop growing and enveloping the objects. It was important for Kusama to convey a “force” that seems to develop from its own self. Which is why she named the work Driving Image, as she later related.41 Writers were often too shy to call things by their name, and preferred to refer to the white fabric forms that seemed to jut out towards the viewer as “protrusions” or “tuber-like” bulges, as excrescences, nodules, or polyps.42 For a long time Kusama titled her works Accumulations, before coming out with the unequivocal term phalli.43 This clearly had biographical reasons: her mother had demanded that she spied on her father while he was enjoying himself with his lovers. The daughter was loathe to watch;44 soon plants and phalli merged in Kusama’s mind to form quasi-surrealist hallucinations. Which is anything but odd when one considers that during her youth in Japan, where she was born on March 22 1929 in Matsumoto, Kusama spent a lot of time drawing plants and liked the feeling of lying in a field, even though it awoke fears in her.45 The Dutch artist Herman de Vries, who was also a trained biologist, nowadays argues that Kusama’s phalli should not necessarily be thought of as such, but as aimed at developing “nature fantasies.”46 A special feature in all this was the boat: as a notably early environment, Kusama presented her hybrid space Aggrega-

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tion: One Thousand Boats Show at Gallery Gertrude Stein in New York in 1963. Brian O’Doherty wrote in respectful tones back then in the New York Times about the phallically populated vessel: “With the appropriate environment they swim in a way that opens the imagination to wonder and deliberate awe.”47 Judd had helped her drag the ten foot-long boat into her studio. The Castellane Gallery in New York showed it again in 1965, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam included it in the exhibition nul negentienhondert vijf en zestig48 Kusama, therefore, traveled to Amsterdam to install the boat at the Stedelijk Museum, and then stayed on for a while in The Hague to show her work in the exhibition Aspecten van hedendaagse erotiek (Aspects of Present-Day Eroticism) at the Orez Gallery. Although closed to people under eighteen, a woman living upstairs nevertheless called the police, who found nothing to object to in the show.49 That same year, Edy de Wilde, the director of the Stedelijk Museum, accepted the phalli bedecked boat, now titled Aggregation Row Boat, as a gift from Kusama. For many years he kept it in the museum entrance hall beside the large, similarly white staircase, where it prompted sniggers and the occasional shaking of heads, and was viewed by arriving visitors as a greeting from the avant-garde art that resided there. Yet the boat was intended quite differently, and only recently has it been presented once again in its original setting. Originally—whether in Gallery Gertrude Stein, at Castellane’s, or in Galerie Orez in The Hague— viewers first had to walk along a dark passageway to reach the work, which was installed in a small room and encircled by dark wallpaper on which a photograph of the boat was repeated in tight order a total of 999 times. Including the boat itself, that made 1000 in all, assuming one really wanted to count them. Kusama offered no interpretation of the presentation. But the Japanese 1000 yen banknote has an empty open oval on both sides. If she had interpreted it as a boat and taken it as a motif, her work with its many protuberances would have linked the (phallic) power of economics with art—a fundamental idea that Kusama had already tried out in a collage with a dollar bill repeated a great many times (1962/1963).50 The multiplication of the boat image in the enclosed space, looking much like an advert, speaks for itself as an appeal against the power of the art market, as does the darkness which the viewers must enter, as in a ritual initiation, before arriving at the snow-white brightness of the boat.51 Although the work has amusing touches, Kusama clearly addresses cultural politics here. She defined herself in 1999 as a rebel: “I consider myself a heretic of the art world.”52 She was also able to engender paradoxical feelings of this kind with other groups of works. Polka Dots At first sight one might think that the tiny interstices in Kusama’s nets, which in many paintings look like autonomous specks, had become totally independent of one another or atomised in her later works. This development did not proceed though in a linear manner but in jumps. Already at the age of ten she did a drawing of a young woman with a

host of dots on her face.53 Untitled, it may have depicted her mother. But that’s not all: on the back of the sheet she also drew a vase by a window, together with parts of the surrounding room, all covered in dots. In these two visions she viewed bodies, objects and surrounding space as a unity. The dots bring life to the world of the young woman, who has closed her eyes as if to dream. Around 1952, thirteen years later, Kusama returned to this view of things, to which she has adhered to the present, in an abstract drawing consisting of a non-hierarchical field of scattered dots.54 As Kusama brought the swarms of dots back into her art in 1963—not even stopping at herself and her bright body stocking, so that soon she was dubbed the “polka dot queen”55—a dot mania had long since been observed in the visual arts, not only in her work but elsewhere. Her solo show at the Brata Gallery in 1959 featured the eye-catching motif for the first time since her drawings in 1939. Polka dots have been an internationally loved pattern since the nineteenth century and became a cheerful fashion in the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s—not only were there polka dot bikinis, even Minnie Mouse was given polka dots—and by the early 1960s Kusama had married the dots with the idea of viewer participation.56 The idea of letting viewers join the process of art making was initially proclaimed by Allen Kaprow and shortly after in Europe by Umberto Eco.57 With this (group) play, Homo ludens was invited to dive into Kusama’s dotty art world.58 The publication of Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens - A Study of the Play Element in Culture in 1955, which he first gave as a series of lectures in 1938, convinced a lot of European artists to adopt this aspect in their art, so that they immediately invited participants to join the fun and help create their works. In this spirit, Kusama chose polka dots as a standard play material and animated exhibition goers to paint away to their heart’s content, decorating a snow-white room with colorful dots.59 Accumulation and abundance of the serially same was all the rage, both in the visual arts as well as in the music of Morton Feldman, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti. Yves Klein even composed in 1947/48 a four-minute Symphonie Monotone-Silence, half of which consisted of a single sustained note, the other half of silence. As he remarked in 1958: “This sound was deprived of its beginning and of its end by an electronic procedure, so that it floated in space, was there completely at rest, and carried on resonating when silence returned.”60 It was the heyday of small repeating (visual) units: Japan, the USA and Europe saw veritable orgies of dots painted in rows and fields. The Gutai group in Japan presented dotted depictions on walls (Yuko Nasaka), canvases (Atsuko Tanaka), and even on a giant cushion (Akira Kanayama). In New York, Larry Poons, who was born in 1937 in Tokyo, painted serial dots on brightly colored backgrounds to create distorted shapes that looked as if they were in motion, and anticipated the after-images that form in the eye. With these paintings, he straddled US American Hard Edge and Op art of the European persuasion. At that time the categories of art were open and fluid. Apart from Piene’s early work, dots were also

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to be found in Günther Uecker’s fields of nails, especially when he used broad headed nails. At the same time a large number of the Nouvelle Tendance artists (Almir Mavignier, Pol Bury, Paul Talman, Walter Zehringer, Gerhard von Graevenitz) worked with dot or sphere elements. A major subject of debate among these artists was how to produce a non-hierarchical or indeed “democratic” field using the same identical forms, thus allowing the viewer’s gaze to roam without having to settle on any particular point. They no longer wanted to dictate how the artwork should be viewed; visitors should decide for themselves. Consequently the term “indeterminacy” was brought into play so as to “free” perception of any bias. Other artists employed dots in the form of painted pixels, which for instance Nam June Paik took in his early paintings from the television screen, while others such as Roy Lichtenstein and Sigmar Polke referred with their painted dots to the dots used in offset printing. But nobody painted swarms of teeming dots as Kusama did, letting them fill the entire surroundings, complete with treelined avenues and horses, thus sharing with the viewers a world in vibration.61 As Kusama saw it, polka dots were a way of feeling connected with the stars: “Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. … When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment. I become part of the eternal and we obliterate ourselves in love.”62 For Kusama, dots are always a key element in a particularly entertaining kind of party. In 1965, a group of display dummies arranged in dance poses “celebrated” their brightly dotted lives in an accordingly dotted space at the Orez Gallery in The Hague.63 They all wore in addition white scarves with tiny dots about their waists and loins. Standing amidst them, also in a dance pose, Kusama let herself be photographed in a red body stocking adorned with large discs, as if she too were part of this life reduced to a standstill.64 Nothing was proffered here for the consumer, this was purely and simply a show of joi de vivre, if of an inanimate kind. It came across as an alternative to the consumer binges that accompanied the economic miracle in Europe, and were also evident in the USA and Japan.65 Polka Dots on Naked Skin But nobody in Europe painted dots on naked men the way Kusama did during the body painting vogue. Her goal in these actions was to unite people, because the dots would unify them.66 In 1967 she offered on various occasions a gesamtkunstwerk consisting of a naked body festival and jazz music, as for instance at the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, where her works were on show at the balans. Foire d’Art moderne/ Moderne kunstbeurs alongside works by other artists from Galerij Orez.67 At the end of the opening on November 18, she asked the male visitors to undress. It was planned that a couple of ballet dancers from the company run by choreographer Hans van Manen would be in attendance, but when they failed to arrive the Nul artist Jan Schoonhoven, who in those days liked to enliven his mood

Yves Klein executing an Antropometry in his studio, Paris, 1960. Photo Yves Klein Archive

Dutch artist Jan Henderikse signing Yayoi Kusama and dancer James Golatta in Kusama’s studio, New York, 1968. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom

Piero Manzoni signing a naked woman on the occasion of the film Sculture viventi (Living Sculptures), Milan, 1961. Photo Fondazione Piero Manzoni

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Yayoi Kusama, Peep Show, Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1966. Photo by Peter Moore, collection 0archive

Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden, Giardini, Venice Biennale, 1966. Photo Getty Research Institute

Christian Megert, mirror installation, Documenta 3, Kassel, 1968. Photo by Peter Lengemann

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Christian Megert, mirror installation, Künstlersiedlung Halfmannshof, Gelsenkirchen, 1965

with amphetamines (at that time they were still seen as harmless and were quite normal at such events),68 and his colleague from Rotterdam, Gust Romijn, took pity on Kusama. The two of them, together with a number of youngsters, fell in with her plan—although Schoonhoven was loathe to remove his socks and glasses. Naked, he patiently allowed her to paint large dots on his ageing form before dancing around with enthusiasm. To conclude he thanked Kusama politely with a shy kiss on the cheek, although such a thing would have been unheard of in Japan.69 Several artists watched the euphoric event passively from the sidelines but in fact they were used to wilder happenings in Amsterdam.70 But the journalists made a meal of it in the newspapers the next day.71 Both the museum director Hans Paalman and Schoonhoven, who worked at the time at the post office, were taken to task by their superiors for this dumbfounding event. Paalman protested in his desperation that he had not known what Kusama was planning, and had failed to consider the matter properly. He could have made an educated guess, though, because a few weeks before, Kusama had staged a similar action at the Delft students society Novem Jazz. The participants were reprimanded and Novem Jazz was forced to close.72 Schoonhoven was told by his boss that he could forget any thoughts of promotion and that his pay would be docked. Essentially his gallerist, Leo Verboon from Galerij Orez, had wanted to stop his artists from participating—but only essentially.73 As Schoonhoven later said, dogmas are all well and good, but life and art should not be made suffer under them.74 Kusama however was now lauded as the “Priestess of Nudity” by the press,75 which cited the words of her proclamation: “The sex-revolution is now. The pill has set the women free. It is now the woman who chooses.”76 Protest actions against middle class mores do have their effect, otherwise they wouldn’t be what they are. Kusama’s dot painting actions were supposed to continue elsewhere, but now they were cancelled. The public in the Netherlands responded with a mixture of shock and indignation, although another young woman artist, Phil Bloom, had already made a nude appearance on television (VPRO) on October 9, 1967. She was shown sitting naked on a chair while leisurely reading the newspaper beside two dressed men, who were occupied with other things and paid no attention to her lack of attire. One was stroking a cat. This amusing and actually quite innocent sketch directly before Kusama’s action had a deep impact on the public and has yet to be forgotten. Its subsequent reward was not shock but laughter. Bloom and Kusama paved the way for it. Mirror Kusama’s vision of the infinity she was out to catch could in fact be expanded. She painted for instance her net on a mirror, so that the viewer could now see themself both captured in the net and catapulted into an infinity of mere appearances. This was a logical consolidation of her ideal. In 1965, Kusama exhibited one such mirror with a red net in Galerij Orez in The Hague.77 Already in previous years, mirrors had become a decisive factor in her work. They had ap-

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peared from 1962 onward in her environments on dressing tables, where they were left unadorned. It was the year in which she, together with Nanda Vigo, had visited the Swiss artist Christian Megert in Bern and studied his mirror collages.78 Megert still recalls her particular interest in the mirror models for environments he made in small boxes, as for instance Mirror Wall, which he wanted to exhibit that year at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Kusama later told him that it was he who had inspired her to use mirrors. But a mirror is not always a mirror: for Megert it was a concrete material which enabled him to incorporate the detached reflection of appearances into art. For Kusama, the mirror lent itself to a quite different concept: her vision of self-obliteration. Self-obliteration Kusama focused even more directly on the individual viewer in her piece Narcissus Garden, which she spread out before the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1966. She was able to prepare it, along with other works, in Lucio Fontana’s studio, and he also lent her the relatively large sum at that time of USD 600 for the manufacture of the plastic silver spheres for the piece.79 Like Fontana, she decided on spheres, albeit smaller than Fontana had employed, and laid them out as a “floor sculpture,” a term at that time for a category of sculpture that helped pave the way for Land art in the late 1960s. Biennale-goers were now able to see themselves multiplied over and over in the 1500 mirrored spheres Kusama had laid out. Which was not merely diverting: secretly the viewers were brought to earth with a bump when they noted that this thousandfold reproduction failed to reflect their own sense of uniqueness. The title of the work provided the necessary context: when the mythical youth Narcissus discovered his likeness in the surface of a pool he fell in love with it. But self-love spelt his death. Kusama never took it quite so far, but her edifying vision of “self-effacement” became quite apparent in this crazy endless mirroring. In line with the multiples that had caught the imagination of the art market, not only was a person’s mirror reflection multiplied, but so was the form of the mirror itself: dressed ornately in a golden kimono, Kusama tried quite resolutely to sell the individual spheres like multiples to Biennale visitors at the price of USD 2.80 A great many artists at that time had joined the European multiples scheme with the aim of reaching other strata of buyers and in that way granting a broader access to art, in all its significance, than is perhaps possible with unique pieces. But her sales venture in Venice infringed the rules of the Biennale and was forbidden. And soon after the day of the “small collector” came to an end as the multiples craze dwindled. Not until 1993 was she able to show her spheres again at the Venice Biennale—this time on the official invitation of the Japanese Pavilion, yet once again not for sale.81 With these 1500 mirror balls, Biennale visitors could see just how little their self-images were worth—a self-insight that Kusama has sought since the 1960s. For this she first needs the principle of self-mirroring as a means of recognition, only

then to dash it. The outcome, or so she hopes, is self-forgetfulness. This concept was also to be found among the ZERO artists: Otto Piene used the term “Selbstentäußerung” [selfrenunciation] when, writing on the people viewing the flow of light transformations in his Lichtballet [Light Ballet], he said it would open up “the living viewer, whether walking or seated and relaxed”: “Once actively relaxed, they can become one with themselves through self-renunciation.”82 Piene never used mirrors, though, and Kusama is more interested in the feeling of self-disappearance than of being one with oneself. Self-knowledge, or finding oneself is a traditional idea in European philosophy. A famous call still rings out from Antiquity: “Know thyself” (Gnothi seauton). Yet Plato rejected this and pointed to the loss of personal memory and the accompanying loss of knowledge.83 It took until 1936 before the French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan added to this tradition by saying that, although the person seeks his identity in the mirror stage, it is an illusion, because only his front side is mirrored.84 But no one spoke about self-obliteration by means of mirrors. For Kusama’s Peep Show aka Endless Love Show in 1966 at the Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, she combined a mirror with a small lamp. Although it does remind one of Duchamp’s tableau Étant donnés (1966) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in her case they were de-sexualised. She constructed a roughly hexagonal space, covered the walls with mirrors, and suspended a large number of small lamps from the ceiling. A hole allowed a “voyeur” to peer inside and make out the blue, red, green and white lights, together with his or her own face distorted by the endless reflections. This was once again a Narcissistic experience, accompanied by the impossibility of self-love, albeit without the sex that is normally involved in a peep show. A repetition of Kusama’s Peep Show was planned in 1966 for the pier at Scheveningen in the Netherlands as part of a grand ZERO on Sea manifestation. Henk Peeters and the organisers from Galerij Orez planned to invite a host of artists, but in vain. The large-scale enterprise had to be called off because a storm was expected. After it blew over, the plan was no longer followed up. For that event, two voyeurs were to look simultaneously through two peep holes and undergo experiences of self-effacement.85 A different kind of voyage to the lost self is aspired to in Kusama’s solo shows around the world consisting of ever new mirror rooms, such as her Infinity Mirror Room of the Souls, which is illuminated by countless little lamps.86 The mirror also plays a decisive part in Nishida Kitarō’s modern Japanese philosophy together with the principle of infinity he expounded.87 Arguing from a reverse logic, he stated that an observer focuses in fact on himself. When perceiving the outside world he is looking for self-knowledge, for which the mirror is a genuine aid. This, according to Nishida, means that he does not possess self-knowledge beforehand, but acquires it first through the nothingness of a reflection in the mirror, until he absorbs it into his mind and the two become one. By contrast, Kusama’s vision of self-obliteration actually aims at preventing self-knowledge through a mirror

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inasmuch as she multiplies the reflection thousands of times over. With this, the mind is disallowed any union with the known. Herein lies a major disagreement with Nishida’s philosophy. In Europe, the philosopher Emanuel Levinas wondered in his early essay from 1961, Totalité et infini, whether one might not discover the “infinite” in the Other, in the form of everyone else, instead of simply supposing it to be somewhere in outer space.88 It is possible that Kusama did not know this text, but it contains striking similarities to her work. For one thing, with her polka dots in a horror vacui she address the infinite cosmos—and for another, her key concepts of selfobliteration and Love For Ever address love of others, whom one could experience as infinite. In this way she coined a maxim that laid the groundwork for a motto89 that Robert Indiana cast in metal in 1970 in his sculpture LOVE. Prior to that, the Beatles had already begun in 1963 to sing All You Need Is Love “from the rooftops.” By the time Norman O’Brown published Love’s Body in 1966—a treasury of quotations from world literature full of talk about sex, love, food, freedom, nothing, etc.—Kusama had long since set the tone.90 With few exceptions, all mostly due to the wishes of the photographers, or a number of fashion shows featuring her singular designs, Kusama scarcely ever stepped inside her artworks, but stuck to the role or task of doer who, after she has finished painting her work, simply looks on. Just as she might have studied her drawing of a dotted woman (her mother?) and the flower by the window at the age of ten. In 1988 she came up with a wider-ranging explanation for this that squared with her Infinity Net and self-obliteration: “Through self-obliteration of one polka dot, which is me, my soul returns forever to the universe via transmigration, as one of the interminable polka dots. Death is negative and life is positive. ‘Infinity Net’ embodies negative and positive, which has been one of my artistic themes.”91 Even more explicitly, she explained: “We must forget ourselves with polka dots! We must lose ourselves in the ever advancing stream of eternity.”92 The French philosopher and psychologist Félix Guattari concluded that Kusama’s hyper-complex oeuvre has presented our wretched world with rich opportunities for new sensitivities.93 That, however, was a promise with a somewhat modern complexion that no few artists made in Europe from the 1950s to the 1980s, one that Kusama also continues to labour on, in her own way, in her works. But this promise does not serve to achieve self-healing in the sense of satisfying a longing for self-knowledge derived through art, but rather in the sense of an immaterial renunciation of identity, of the elision of the self. The final consequence lies outside of the artwork—in infinity. Hence Kusama’s art affirms precisely that which she does not show but that instead stirs the imagination.

Previously published by the Gropius Bau Berlin on the occasion of the exhibition Yayoi Kusama, A Retrospective, March 2021, and adapted for this publication.

Yayoi Kusama Untitled, 1965 (detail) Oil on mirror 56 x 38 cm (mirror) Private collection Provenance Orez Gallery, The Hague

Christian Megert Nul 62, 1962 (Replik 2013) Mirror, Acrylic on wood 180 x 140 x 12 cm Collection of the artist Exhibited 1962 in Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Uli Pohl Spirale III/px, 1962/63 Acrylic glass, aluminium base 46 x 22 x 3.5 cm Collection Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf Exhibited 1962 in Nul, together with the paintings by Kusama, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

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Telephone conversation with Heinz Mack on 27.12.2019. Kusama: Infinity (USA 2018, director Heather Lenz). 3 Already in 1955 she was invited to participate in the International Watercolor Exhibition, 18th Biennial, at the Brooklyn Museum, New York. 4 A reproduction of Flower Spirit is included in Midori Yamamura, “Re-Viewing Kusama, 1950–1975: Biography of Things,” in Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years, ex. cat. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 2009, pp. 63–109, fig. 3. Yamamura presumes that the painting is from 1955, but it is dated in fact 1948. 5 Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, translated by Ralph McCarthy, The University of Chicago Press, 2011, p. 9 ff.. 6 Ibid., pp. 28 and 30, as well as “Chronology,” in Yayoi Kusama: My Eternal Soul, ex. cat. National Art Center, Tokyo 2017, pp. 222–223. 7 Herbert Read, “Yayoi Kusama 13-3-1964,” in Yayoi Kusama, ex. cat. Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio, Milan 1966, no page no. 8 Yayoi Kusama, “Message,” in Yayoi Kusama. My Eternal Soul, no page no. 9 Telephone call with Christian Megert in December 2019. 10 Gordon Brown, “Interview with Yayoi Kusama (1964)”, in Akira Tatehata, Laura Hoptman, Udo Kultermann and Catherine Taft, Yayoi Kusama, New York and London 2000, pp. 100–104, here p. 103. 11 Midori Yamamura, Yayoi Kusama. Inventing the Singular, Cambridge, MA, 2015, p. 49. 12 Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1957. 13 A. C. Grayling, The History of Philosophy, London 2019, p. 15. 14 Yamamura Midori, “An International Crossroad of the Art of Social Engagement,” in Henk Peeters: From nul to zero, Ghent 2015, pp. 160–163. 15 Lucio Fontana, cited in Axel Vervoordt, IN-FINITUM, Wijnegem and Ghent 2009, p. I. 16 Yves Klein in nota. Studentische Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst und Dichtung, 4, 1960, p. 8. (brief statement, signed “Paris, September 1959.” 17 Otto Piene, “Vergangenes-Gegenwärtiges-Zukünftiges,” in Piene, 10 texte, Munich, undated (1961), no page no. 18 Otto Piene, “The Development of the Group ‘Zero’,” in The Times Literary Supplement, 3.9.1964, Reprinted in ZERO III, Boston 1973, pp. XXIII–XXV. 19 Heinz Mack, “Die Dynamische Struktur der Farbe und des Lichtes [...],” in nota, 4, 1960, p. 5 (brief statement). 20 See Love For Ever. Yayoi Kusama 1948–1968, ex. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1999, p. 45. 21 Cf. nul=0, 1, November 1961, Arnhem; Hans Haacke also wrote on the infinite, indeterminate, immaterial and vibrations in nul=0, 2, from 1962 p. 28. 22 Michel Tapié and Tôre Haga, Avant-Garde Art in Japan, New York, 1962 23 Love for Ever. Yayoi Kusama 1958–1968, pp. 80–81. 24 As observed by the translator Tomoko Murajama. 25 Udo Kultermann in Yayoi Kusama, 2000, pp. 100–104, p. 86. 26 Hans Joachim Zimmerling, “‘Bild’ 45 ist verschenkt,” in 2

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Kölner Rundschau, 20.3.1960. 27 Cat. Internationale Malerei 1960-61. 900 Jahre WolframsEschenbach. Galerie 59 Aschenburg and Galerie Rottluff, Karlsruhe 1961. nos. 144, 245, 246. 28 Peeters, From nul to zero, pp. 168, 169. 29 ZERO, ex. cat. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Zero Foundation Düsseldorf, Cologne 2015, p. 79. 30 Henk Peeters, interview with Marinus Boezem, in Peeters, From nul to zero, pp. 44–53, here p. 45. 31 Caroline de Westenholz, “Zero on Sea,” in Today’s Art on Sea, Breda 2015. Online: https://issuu.com/todaysart/docs/zero-boekje-2015. 32 Laura Hoptman, “Down to Zero. Yayoi Kusama and the European ‘New Tendency’,” in Yayoi Kusama, Love For Ever, pp. 42–59, here p. 43. 33 “Akira Tatehata in Conversation with Yayoi Kusama,” in Tatehata et al., Yayoi Kusama, pp. 8–30, here p. 10. 34 Telephone conversation with Hans Haacke on 23.12.2019. 35 Brown, “Interview with Yayoi Kusama,” p. 104. 36 Yayoi Kusama: Driving Image Show, Galerie M. E. Thelen, Essen; Abbildung in Yayoi Kusama, 2000, S. 87. 37 Yayoi Kusama, interview with Gordon Brown for WABC Radio, in Stijl, The New Style. Werk van de internationale avant-garde, vol. 1, Amsterdam 1965, pp. 100–105. 38 Allen Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments & Happenings, New York 1966, pp. 20/21. 39 “Akira Tatehata in Conversation with Yayoi Kusama,” p. 13. 40 Heinrich Dumolin, Geschichte des Zen-Buddhismus, vol. 2: Japan, Bern 1986, p. 70. 41 Yayoi Kusama, interview with Gordon Brown for WABC Radio, op. cit. pp. 163–164. 42 Mignon Nixon, “Posing the Phallus,” in October, 92, Spring 2000, pp. 98–127. 43 Brown, “Interview with Yayoi Kusama,” p. 100. 44 Kusama, Infinity Net. The Autobiography, p. 70. 45 Ibid., p. 62. All at once she felt she was being looked at by every single pansy, and was scared. 46 Telephone conversation with Herman de Vries in December 2019. 47 Brian O’Doherty, “Exhibitions Playing a Wide Field: International Selection of Painting and Sculpture in Local Galleries,” in The New York Times, 29.12.1963. 48 Nul negentienhondert vijf en zestig, part 2, ex. cat. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1965. Kusama’s work: cat. no. 16. 49 Caroline de Westenholz, Higher that Level! A History of International Gallery Orez/Hoger die drempel! Een geschiedenis van Internationale Galerij Orez (1960-1971), Amsterdam 2016, p. 82. 50 Yayoi Kusama, Untitled (One Dollars), 1962–1963, collage on paper, reproduced in Yayoi Kusama. All About My Love, London 2018, p. 74. 51 The space in the Stedelijk Museum was only first reconstructed in 2010 and then presented in the exhibition ZERO – Let Us Explore the Stars 2015 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 52 Grady T. Turner, “Yayoi Kusama,” in BOMB, 66, Winter 1999. 53 A reproduction of the drawing can be found in Yayoi

Kusama. Mirrored Years, p. 108, fig. 26. 54 Infinity, 1952, ink on paper, Kusama Collection, Tokyo, in Yayoi Kusama: Infinty Mirrors, ex. cat. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2017, p. 16, fig. 1. 55 The opening of the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo (Shinjuku-ku, 107 Bentencho) on 28.9.2017 was marked by a specially made You Tube video that included this concept: The Museum of Polka Dot Queen Yayoi Kusama. 56 Yayoi Kusama: Give Me Love, David Zwirner, New York 2015; see also the film documentary by PBS News Hour. Online: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/need-escapereality-step-infinity-yayoi-kusama, 10.3.2017 (last visited 16.3.2020). 57 Umberto Eco, The Open Work, London, Cambridge Mass. 1989. 58 Johan H. Huizinga, Homo Ludens - A Study of the Play Element in Culture, Boston Ma. 1955. 59 As for instance the exhibiton Spielobjekte – die Kunst der Möglichkeiten, Museum Tinguely, Basel 2014. 60 Yves Klein, ex. cat. Nationalgalerie Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Berlin 1976, p. 13. 61 As at Woodstock on 4.7.1967. 62 Jud Yalkut, “The Polka Dot Way of Life: Conservations with Yayoi Kusama,” in The New York Free Press & West Side News, 15.2.1968. 63 Polka Dot Love Room, Internationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, 3.11.1967. 64 de Westenholz, Higher that Level!, pp. 178–179. The cover photograph shows Kusama in her environment, with colorful round discs on her red body stocking (photo: Harrie Verstappen); Ben Dull “Yayoi in haar Love Room,” in Het Parool, 23.11.1964. 65 Gunhild Borggreen, “Art and Consumption in Post-Bubble Japan from Modern Irony to Shared Engagement: A Transdisciplinary Perspective,” in Katarzyna J. Cwiertka and Ewa Machotka (eds.), Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan, Amsterdam 2018, pp. 175–194, on Kusama above all p. 187. 66 Harry Ruhé, Art, No-Art & Anti Art. A Collection of Relics, Amsterdam 2019, p. 74; conversation with Harry Ruhé in December 2019. 67 Kusama was represented at the Balans art fair with a silver Phallic Girl and eight pairs of phallic shoes, a phallically informed tray with Coca-Cola bottles on a table, and two freshly painted Infinity Net paintings. See de Westenholz, Higher That Level!, p. 187; cf. W. Pender, “Kunstbeurs Balans met smakeloze grol,” in Het Vaderland, 19.11.1967. 68 Schoonhoven in conversation with the author on 24.6.1975. 69 See the photo by A. (E.) den Haan in Antoon Melissen, Jan Schoonhoven, New York 2015, fig. 19; Melanie Ciuraj, “Yayoi Kusama, een Japanse kunstenares in het Nederland van de jaren zestig,” in Kunstlicht 27, 2006, pp. 98–102, here p. 99. 70 Discussion with Franck Gribling on 16.12.2019. 71 Dull, “Yayoi in haar Love Room,” photograph by Herbert Behrens; A. Wagenaar, “Yayoi Kusama en de blote mannen,” in Vrij Nederland 2.12.1967; Betty van Garrel, “De bandeloze liefde van Kusama,” in Haagse Post, 11.11.1967.

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Niels van Maanen, “Yayoi Kusama: een JapansAmerikanische kunstenares in Nederland, 1962–1971,” diss. Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2008, p. 20 ff.; Eric Kerstiëns in Het Binnenhof 2.2.1968. 73 “Dogma mag leuk zijn, maar ’t leven en de kunst moeten er niet onder lijden.” Sandra van Beek, Zero Man Jan J. Schoonhoven. Dutch Artist & civil servant (1914–1994), Amsterdam, 2014, p. 80. 74 In conversation with Betty van Garrel in 1971, in Sjoerd van Faassen and Hans Sleutelaar (eds.), De nieuwe stijl 1959– 1966, Amsterdam and The Hague 1989, p. 105. 75 Rolf Boost, “Yayoi, priesteres van het naakt,” in Algemeen Dagblad, 21.11.1967. 76 de Westenholz, op. cit. Higher that Level!, p. 186. 77 Harry Ruhé of Galerie A in Amsterdam bought the mirror, which now is in the Michael Lowe Collection, USA. Galerie Orez had 2000 screen prints made of it. 78 Telephone call with Christian Megert on 11.12.2019. 79 Écrits de Lucio Fontana. Manifestes, textes, entretiens, edited, translated, and introduced by Valérie Da Costa, Paris 2013, p. 83. 80 Reproduced in Corriere d’informazione (Milan), 21./22.6.1966, and in Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, p. 26. 81 The work was also exhibited 1998/99 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and since 2009 has been installed in the Inhotim Institute in Brunadinho, Brazil. 82 Otto Piene, “Licht,” in nul=0, 1, S. 3. 83 Plato, Phaidros, 249c–251d. 84 Jacques Lacan, Écrits, Paris: Seuil 1966. English: Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: The First Complete Edition in English, edited. and translated by Bruce Fink et al., pp. 75–81.; cf. Frank Van de Veire, Als in een donkere spiegel. De kunst in de moderne filosofie, Amsterdam 2002. 85 de Westenholz, Zero on Sea, pp. 30–31. Kusama’s lengthy explanatory letter of 23.3.1966 is in the keeping of the Albert Vogel Archive at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. 86 On view at the exhibition Yayoi Kusama, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, 2019. 87 See “Nishida Kitarō, 2.2: Self-Awareness,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Online: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nishida-kitaro/#SelAwa (last visited 4.3.2020). 88 Published in the English translation somewhat later: Emanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity, Pittsburgh 1969. 89 Hoptman et al., Love For Ever. 90 Norman O’Brown, Love’s Body, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1966. 91 Kusama Yayoi, “Beyond ‘Obsession’”, in Yayoi Kusama. Soul Burning Flashes, ex. cat. Fuji Television Gallery 1988, no page no. 92 Yayoi Kusama in Yayoi Kusama: Driving Image, Tokyo 1986, unpag. This and the previous citation from Fumio Nanjo, “Kusamatrix and Beyond,” in Yayoi Kusama: Kusamatrix, ex. cat. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo 2004, pp. 84–86, here p. 85. 93 Félix Guattari, “The Rich Affects of Madame Yayoi Kusama,” in Machinic Eros: Writings on Japan, Minneapolis 2015, pp. 75-76.

INDEX

Artists Alviani, Getulio 60, 61, 62, 63, 105 Armando 7, 13, 15, 16, 19, 31, 39, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 73, 103, 104, 182, 192 Aubertin, Bernard 16, 36, 58, 60, 61, 62, 104, 106, 109, 183 Beuys, Joseph 23, 107, 182 Brown, Stanley 58, 61, 104, 116, 150 Bury, Pol 36, 58, 61, 62, 63, 103, 105, 109, 200 Castellani, Enrico 12, 24, 36, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 74, 75, 103, 105, 106, 109 Christo 38, 61, 106, 107, 197 Colombo, Gianni 29, 36, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 104, 105, 109, 133 Dadamaino 58, 60, 61, 62, 63 Damsté, Paul 45, 46, 103, 105, 108, 154, 182 De Kooning, Willem 178 Dorazio, Piero 36, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 103, 105, 109, 193 Fontana, Lucio 12, 13, 15, 20, 23, 24, 29, 36, 45, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 105, 107, 109, 134, 168, 192, 195, 196, 203 Goepfert, Hermann 45, 57, 58, 61, 62, 103, 105, 106, 107, 109 Haacke, Hans 20, 29, 36, 37, 54, 58, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 107, 109, 196 Gribling, Franck 61, 109, 162, 207 Henderikse, Jan 13, 15, 23, 57, 58, 60, 61, 73, 96, 104, 107, 109, 160, 182, 192, 196, 201 Hilgemann, Ewerdt 106 Holweck, Oskar 36, 57, 58, 62, 103, 105, 109 Judd, Donald 103, 107, 199 Jutte, Jacob 155 Kanayama, Akira 11, 23, 63, 103, 198, 200 Klein, Yves 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 36, 52, 53, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 103, 104, 105, 109, 116, 119, 127, 182, 183, 192, 194, 195, 200, 201 Kline, Franz 178 Mack, Heinz 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 23, 24, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, 41, 45, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 105, 109, 182, 191, 192, 195, 196 Manzoni, Piero 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 24, 36, 46, 52, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 103, 105, 107, 109, 133 Mavignier, Almir 58, 60, 61, 62, 105, 107, 200

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Megert, Christian 16, 19, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 36, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 192, 202, 203, 205 Morellet, Francois 12, 60, 62 Newman, Barnett 15, 103 Oldenburg, Claes 38, 40, 106, 107, 133, Peeters, Henk 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 67, 69, 73, 75, 99, 101, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109, 116, 133, 150, 167, 175, 182, 183, 192, 194, 195, 196, 204 Piene, Otto 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 29, 31, 32, 36, 38, 41, 45, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 105, 109, 113, 131, 182, 183, 192, 193, 195, 196, 200, 204 Pohl, Uli 16, 19, 58, 61, 62, 103, 109, 205 Pollock, Jackson 12, 37, 127, 192 Rauschenberg, Robert 12, 24, 103, 105, 106, 107 Rickey, George 13, 29, 49, 61, 62, 63, 104 Romijn, Gust 12, 55, 114, 116, 119, 150, 152, 171 Rotella, Mimmo 38, 57, 107 Roth, Dieter 36, 62 Rothko, Mark 15, 16, 24, 57, 67, 103 Schafthuizen, Joop 154 Schoonhoven, Jan 7, 12, 13, 15, 19, 23, 24, 36, 39, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 71, 73, 89, 90, 93, 94, 97, 103, 105, 107, 109, 113, 114, 116, 119, 120, 123, 124, 127, 150, 152, 154, 155, 171, 183, 192, 200, 203 Shimamoto, Shozo 11, 63 Shiraga, Kazuo 11, 105, 127 Sleutelaar, Hans 19, 58, 60, 62, 67, 73, 104, 183 Smit, Robert 150 Soto, Jesús Raphael 13, 29, 36, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 103, 105 Spesshardt, Hans 69, 93, 103, 106, 107 Spindel, Ferdinand 23, 49, 51, 52, 54, 61, 62, 63, 69, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109 Spoerri, Daniel 11, 38, 61, 107, 133 Stanley, Bob 93, 107 Talman, Paul 62, 103, 105, 107, 200 Tambellini, Aldo 54 Tanaka, Atsuko 63, 198, 200 Uecker, Günther 13, 15, 16, 20, 23, 24, 29, 31, 36, 38, 45, 51, 52, 54, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 105, 107, 109, 192, 193, 194, 196, 197, 200

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Uecker, Rotraut 20, 29, 52 Vasarely, Viktor 38, 61, 62, 105, 107 Vaandrager, Cornelis Christiaan 67 van Amen, Woody 69, 103, 107, 150 van den Bundt, Livinus 113, 116, 119, 120, 150, 151, 171 van Leeuwen, Jef 116, 152 van Maanen, Hans 93 Verdijk, Gerard 69, 93, 103, 106, 107, 116, 148, 150 Verhagen, Hans 12, 67 Verheyen, Jef 24, 36, 45, 53, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 103, 105, 148, 150, 171 Verstockt, Mark 24, 57, 159 Vigo, Nanda 29, 51, 52, 53, 55, 61, 62, 63, 73, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 192, 203 von Graevenitz, Gerhard 58, 60, 62, 105, 109, 200 Vostel, Wolf 23, 38 Warhol, Andy 40, 106, 107, 137, 183 Yoshihara, Jiro 11, 12, 13, 20, 29, 45, 51, 63, 73 Zehringer, Walter 198 Zekveld, Jacob 116, 148, 150, 152, 171

Curators Beeren, Wim 62, 99, 107, 116, 150, 15 Becht, Frits 51, 52, 55, 70, 71, 96, 98, 99, 103, 106, 107, 108, 155, 183 De Wilde, Edy 19, 20, 24, 29, 38, 51, 180, 183, 199, 203 Determeyer, Eddy 114, 116, 150, 151, 152 Hulten, Pontus 13, 23, 51, 103, 104 Kultermann, Udo 13, 19, 23, 24, 34, 35, 36, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 67, 104, 105, 114 Paalman, Hans 93, 120, 121, 124, 203 Restany, Piere 38 Sandberg, Willem 13, 16, 19, 20, 24, 36, 56, 58, 104, 182, 196 Sonnenberg, Hans 12, 19, 61, 99, 116, 181 Szeemann, Harald 13, 23, 51, 52, 53, 54, 104, 105

Gallerists Castellane, Richard 33, 38, 74, 75, 105, 175, 197, 202 Cardazzo, Renato 53, 55, 99, 104 Clert, Iris 13, 23, 40, 41 Dorekens, Guy 19, 24, 51, 52, 60 Dusanne, Zoë 11, 191 Perry, Beatrice 37 Radich, Stephen 13, 16, 24, 31, 33, 196

Schmela, Alfred 13, 15, 24, 29, 52 Sonnabend, Ileana 40 Sonnenberg, Hans 12, 19, 61, 99, 116, 183 Ten Cate, Ritsaert 170 Thelen, M.E. 53, 54, 55, 65, 98, 99, 104, 106, 108, 144, 168, 196, 206 Verboon, Leo 12, 13, 23, 41, 51, 55, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 89, 93, 94, 96, 97, 103, 113, 116, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124, 171, 183, 203 Vogel, Albert 12, 23, 41, 42, 51, 55, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 76, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 94, 96, 97, 101, 103, 107, 116, 120, 121, 124, 143, 144, 180, 183

Photographers Behrens, Herbert 93, 121, 153, 154 Boersma, Pieter 89, 148 Burckhardt, Rudolp 32 Den Haan, Ton 127 Dommisse, Marianne 2, 69, 70, 103, 143, 144 Fahner, Just 26 Fieret, Gerard 119, 150 Frericks, J.J. 128 Giancolombo 134 Huey, Lock 54 Jaring, Cor 157 Janssen, Ton 149, 150 McDarrah, Fred W. 136 Mechanicus, Philip 23, 24, 26, 32, 46 Moore, Peter 33, 75, 76, 202 Morain, André 20, 29, 51, 52 Petersen, Ad 13, 23, 29, 52, 63, 183, 198 Reiff, Hall 20, 74, 190 Starcken, Astrid 55, 105 Stutvoet, Cor 94, 128, 155, 156 Manfred Tischer 15, 16, 31, 33 Van Alphen, Oscar 16, 19, 31, 32, 202 Van den Boom, Raoul 11, 55, 96, 97, 134, 137, 157, 158, 159, 160, 201 Van Houts, Theo 89, 113, 114, 128, 145, 146, 147, 149, 152, 198 Verstappen, Harrie 55, 89, 93, 94, 101, 109, 127, 131, 137, 145, 148, 153, 154, 155, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 184, 188, 189, 207 Vlek, Charles 122, 123

This publication presents the results of the preliminary research, which began in 2018 in preparation for the Yayoi Kusama retrospective exhibition at the Gropius Bau in Berlin in 2021. The accumulated knowledge, retained in this publication, is the basis for the development of the exhibition Kusama: with love from Holland at the Stedelijk Museum of Schiedam. Editor: Tijs Visser Publisher: 0-INSTITUTE Translator: Mike Ritchie Designer: Tijs Visser Printer: Blurb Inc. (30 copies) © 2022 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 artists, authors, photographers © 2022 Harrie Verstappen / 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 Raoul Van den Boom / 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 Ton Janssen / 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 Cor Stutvoet / 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 Harrie Verstappen & Yayoi Kusama (p. 186 top) © 2022 Yayoi Kusama / Kusama Studio, Tokyo © 2022 Gutai Art Association, Ashiya © 2022 Philip Mechanicus / Maria Austria Instituut, Amsterdam © 2022 Marianne Dommisse / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam / 0-INSTITUTE © 2022 Theo van Houts / Spaarnestad © 2022 Herbert Behrens / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam © 2022 Ton den Haan / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam © 2022 Oscar van Alphen / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam © 2022 Cor Jaring / Stadsarchief, Amsterdam The research for this publication has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Jaap Harten Fonds. The aim of the foundation is to provide financial support to promote art and literature in the Netherlands. www.jaaphartenfonds.nl The 0-INSTITUTE has the task of researching, preserving and presenting the works and documents of artists associated with the international post-war ZERO movement and is active in evaluating the ideas of the movement and presenting them in a contemporary context. www.0-institute.info All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher and or authors.

Photos front and back cover: Yayoi Kusama, somewhere between Bunnik and Scheveningen, 1970. Photos by Harrie Verstappen. Photo right: Yayoi Kusama in the garden of Gust Romijn, Rotterdam, 1967. Photo by Raoul Van den Boom