MANIA, JULY 17, 2013 – The Ayala Museum, with the support of the Japan Foundation-Manila, on Tuesday opened the exhibition “I Love Kusama” featuring some of Yayoi Kusama’s original artworks from Lito and Kim Camacho’s collection.
The museum launched its newest exhibition program ‘collectors Series’ as an avenue for the public to view rarely seen artworks from collection of private individuals that they admire. Curated thematic exhibitions aims to expand the understanding and appreciation of local and international art.
In celebration of the 40th year of the ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation and the Philippines-Japan friendship month, Ayala Museum chose Japan artist Yayoi Kusama to kick off the first series of the exhibition program. "I Love Kusama" depicts not just Lito and Kim Camacho’s (the collectors) admiration on Kusama’s artworks but also the public’s awe the moment they saw her artworks.
The 84-year old artist was born in Nagano Prefecture. Kusama is known globally as an avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist. Her artistic desire started at an early age: at ten, she started painting in watercolors, pastels and oils. Her favorite motifs are polka dots and nets. Being born in an affluent family, her parents forbid her to be an artist. That led to a rebellion of sorts. Her frustration in Japan led her interest in European and American avant-garde art.
In the later 1950s, Kusama started showing her art to public, which includes large paintings, soft sculptures, and environmental sculptures using mirrors and electric lights.
The 1968 film Kusama’s Self-Obliteration, which Kusama produced and starred, won a prize at the Fourth International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium and the Second Maryland Film Festival and the second prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Kusama has held exhibitions and performed in different countries across the globe. Her most notable installations include her immersive infinity mirror rooms that have been featured in institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art and Tate Modern, and her iconic spotted pumpkin sculptures seen on both indoor and outdoor exhibitions in different countries.
She returned to Japan in 1973 and checked herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill and decided to reside in the hospital since then. She continued to produce artworks in her studio near the hospital. Because her family had always been depriving her to be an artist, Kusama has attempted to commit suicide many times. Through the years, art had been her therapy. Kusama is often quoted as saying: "If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago."
Kim Camacho, fervent Kusama collector, began her admiration for Kusama’s work when she attended one of her exhibitions in Japan in 2005. She loved how Kusama created a world of her own and even influenced her husband Lito, who easily fell in love with Kusama’s artworks. Since then, the couple had been collectors, buying from different international auctions.
"She maybe crazy, but she’s a hell of a business woman," remarked Kim. In 2011, she also worked with fashion designer Marc Jacobs for a line of whimsical products and corresponding window displays for Louis Vuitton, which became a public fad.
Ayala Museum curator Ditas Samson said: "Her work is really unlike any other artist. She is the only artist who has retained her own visual vocabulary since 1952 until now."
The exhibition will be on view until September 1, 2013. As part of its education component, Akira Tatehata, one of the world’s leading experts on Kusama, will conduct a one-time lecture on August.
