By Sarah Suzuki. Illustrated by Ellen Weinstein, including artwork by Yayoi Kusama
Published by MoMA Distributed by Thames & Hudson ISBN: 978-1-63345-039-4
Review by Derek Brazell
![](https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MoMA_Kusama_cover2.jpg)
Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 in Japan, on the island of Honshu, and from a young age she resisted the formal conventional expectations of a Japanese girl in that era – she wanted to be an artist, and this story follows her journey, from the resistance she experienced to breaking free to go to America, to worldwide renown as an artist.
![](https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kusama_flowers.png)
Ellen Weinstein’s graphic approach suits the telling of Kusama’s story, depicting important moments in her journey: sitting virtually alone on her first trip to America with her kimonos; at the top of the Empire State Building once in New York reflecting ‘Here, it seemed, anything was possible.’
![](https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Screen-Shot-2017-12-08-at-11.34.10.png)
The illustrations reflects the apparent simplicity of Kusama’s artwork – influenced by her dreams of polka dots as a child – with the text confirming that ‘she was devoted to her dots—for her they were a way of thinking about the world among the stars, as one dot among millions of others. They were a way of thinking about infinity.’
![](https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kusama_street.png)
Weinstein shows Kusama’s change in image as she becomes a successful artist, now back in Japan with the red-haired bob that’s she’s famous for, becoming one of the artists whose appearance is synonymous with their image.
![](https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kusama_reddots.png)
It’s refreshing to have a book on an artist aimed at children which avoids the cute and embraces a contemporary illustrated edge to reflect the artist’s work.
The book also includes examples of Kusama’s artwork for readers to see.