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Yoyoi Kusama's polka dot takes the Cincinnati Art Museum by storm

All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins , 2016. Yayoi Kusama . Wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, and LED. Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2018.12.A – I. © YAYOI KUSAMA .
Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner
All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins , 2016. Yayoi Kusama . Wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, and LED. Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2018.12.A – I. © YAYOI KUSAMA .

The polka dot is one of those inescapable motifs of fashion. Minnie Mouse won't leave home without it. We can't quite trace it back, but we've watched its jaunty dance on fabrics across the runway, in offices and classrooms and on the dance floor. Its cousin the dot caught the imagination of artists including Georges Seurat and Chuck Close. And its counterpart the pixel is the basis of the digital image.

But perhaps no artist has taken the polka dot to new heights and redefined its power like Yayoi Kusama. She's filled rooms with dots, she's adorned her body in polka dots and most notably she's covered large fiberglass gourds with black polka dots.

On Cincinnati Edition, Yoyoi Kusama takes the Cincinnati Art Museum by storm in Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins. You might never view the polka dot the same way again.

Guest:

  • Ainsley Cameron, director of curatorial affairs and initiatives, Cincinnati Art Museum

This interview was pre-recorded, so we can’t take your calls. You can catch a recorded replay at 8 p.m.

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