We Covet: Yayoi Kusama

We here at Covet Garden couldn't be more excited to learn about luxury label Louis Vuitton's collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Not that we can afford luxury goods, but any enterprise that raises awareness of Kusama's weird and wonderful work is okay by us!

Born into a family of seed merchants 1929 in Nagano, Kusama originally studied traditional Nihonga painting. Her interest, however, was in the avant-garde. She moved to New York City in the 1950s where her graphic style and polka dot motifs led to an association with the pop art movement. When she moved back to Japan in the ’70s she also took up writing, but generally fell out of the public's attention. However, recent retrospectives at the Tate Gallery in London and, currently, at the Whitney in New York, have brought her influential work back into the public eye.

As an artist, Kusama has always worked in a broad range of mediums. And her pieces are almost always conceptual in nature. Which is why the Louis Vuitton collaboration works. The collection is inspired by Kusama's work and her eccentric personality. The pieces also range from squash shaped bags (a nod to her family's history in the seedling business) to oversized shades like the ones favoured by Kusama herself. Plus her signature dots. Lots and lots of dots.

[images, Louis Vuitton]