Yayoi Kusama to Open Her Own Museum in Tokyo

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Polka dots. Mirrors. Pumpkins. Balloons. And long lines to see all of the above.

Yayoi Kusama, whose obsessively patterned and repetitive imagery has made her one of Japan’s most celebrated artists, is opening her own museum in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo on Oct. 1. The news, reported by the Japanese culture website Spoon and Tamago on Thursday, was confirmed by the David Zwirner Gallery, which represents Ms. Kusama.

The museum, a five-story building designed by Kume Sekkei, was completed in 2014, but Ms. Kusama, 87, remained quiet about its purpose. (She perhaps alluded to the project in an interview in February with The Washington Post when she was asked what had been the highlight of her career. “It’s still coming,” Ms. Kusama said. “I’m going to create it in the future.”)

The museum will be directed by Tensei Tatebata, the president of Tama Art University and director of the Saitama Museum of Modern Art. The space will be dedicated to Ms. Kusama’s own work, with two changing exhibitions each year, as well as one floor housing her popular “infinity rooms” and other installations. The top floor will house a reading room and archival materials.

The first exhibition, “Creation Is a Solitary Pursuit, Love Is What Brings You Closer to Art,” running Oct. 1 through Feb. 25, will show a recent series of paintings, “My Eternal Soul.” Tickets, priced at 1,000 yen, or about $9, go on sale on Aug. 28 and will be offered in time slots, suggesting that large crowds are anticipated.

That’s probably correct: Her recent exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington drew such high numbers of visitors that The Post published a survival guide. The show is at the Seattle Art Museum through Sept. 10.

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