Kusama: The Graphic Novel

Product Description

From rural Japan to international icon – Yayoi Kusama has spent her remarkable life immersed in her art.

Follow her incredible journey in this vivid graphic biography which details her bold departure from Japan as a young artist, her embrace of the buzzing New York art scene in the 1960s, and her eventual return home and rise to twenty-first-century super-fame.

From School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-Artist/author Macellari’s short graphic novel highlights Japanese artist and style icon Yayoi Kusama, known to many because of her highly Instagrammable infinity installations. Despite flourishing in the New York City hippie/avant-garde scene as a polka dot-obsessed painter and conceptual artist, Kusama is not as well known as other contemporaries due to an extended period of obscurity. This visual account, largely sourced from Kusama’s autobiography and website, primarily focuses on her burgeoning artistic career during the 1960s and early 1970s. Macellari also lightly touches on the artist’s childhood and her return to Japan (the result of mental health issues) in the 1970s and later reemergence onto the art scene in the early 1990s. Readers will find this a strong introduction to an artist who may be more recognizable for her work than her name, though given the topic it will appeal most to teens with an artistic bent. Indeed, at times, the narrative feels like a greatest-hits compilation of Kusama’s most notable work, such as her early infinity net paintings and mirrored infinity rooms, as well as her interactions with other famous artists of the day, including Andy Warhol and Joseph Cornell. Within the pale yet colorful, finely drawn illustrations, Macellari blends her own artistic style with that of her subject by incorporating distinct visual motifs like Kusama’s ubiquitous polka dots and phallic objects. Almost-exact renderings of actual photographs, flyers, and newspapers add another layer to the art. Nudity is present within historical context. VERDICT A quick read for those interested in contemporary art and unfamiliar with Yayoi Kusama; a strong addition for creative arts high schools.-Pearl Derlaga, York County P.L., VAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

“…full of lush imagery and dizzyingly vivid splashes of colour that are deliberately evocative of Kusama’s own work..Many graphic biographies of artists attempt to replicate their subjects’ style in their pages, but Macellari’s Kusama achieves unique success in this effort.”
PopMatters

“Macellari’s splendid biography of Yayoi Kusama brings the artist’s neurotic obsessions to life…Macellari’s comics interpret and mirror Kusama’s art in a way that honors it but doesn’t imitate it. This satisfying glimpse into Kusama’s world reveals a place both tidy and trippy.”
Publishers Weekly

“Elisa Macellari’s
Kusama: The Graphic Novel, a new graphic biography published by Laurence King, is a welcome change, providing insight into the artist’s pre-social media years. Rather than concentrating on the immersive and spectacular nature of the large-scale works that have fascinated museum-goers in recent years, the author, after introducing Kusama’s childhood in the 1930s, mostly focuses on the artist’s pivotal years spent in New York, starting in 1958, when she became part of the city’s avant-garde circles.”
Hyperallergic

“Kusama: The Graphic Novel is an ode to the power of art, which, on multiple occasions, saved Kusama.”
Hyperallergic

“For the first time, the remarkable Japanese artist’s life is told in comic-book form.”
artnet

“…entertaining, trippy chronicle of the Japanese artist’s highs and lows”
The Art Newspaper

“If you’re gifting for someone who loves art, they might enjoy this stunning graphic novel. One of the world’s most recognisable artists, known for her plush, stuffed installations covered in polka dots, and her obsessive, repetitive dra