Back in October half term 2018 we were lucky to get tickets to the London Yayoi Kusama installation, a free event at the Victoria Miro gallery near Old Street. I’ve always admired Yayoi Kusama’s work and was excited to introduce the kids to her work. We loved the Infinity Mirrored Room, the giant pumpkins, paintings and installations. It was a really inspiring event for the whole family. We really loved the pumpkins covered in dots and tried to re-create them at home on painted rocks – it was so much harder than it looked!

Yayoi Kasuma Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry

A few weeks ago Phaidon got in touch about their new book all about Yayoi Kusama. My son is a keen artist and I knew he would love to see a copy.

The artist Yayoi Kusama covers her paintings in hundreds and hundreds of dots. Tiny intricate dots on huge paintings. Dots endlessly reflected in rooms with mirrored walls, ceilings and floors. Dots on tables and dresses and bright polka dots on people’s bodies.

Written and illustrated by Fausto Gilberti, Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry captures the creativity of one of the most popular contemporary artists today with text full of wit and eccentricity, playful layouts, and animated illustrations.

Kusama’s life is recounted using energetic text alongside Gilberti’s signature simple black-line illustrations. The story is told in the first person and covers Kusama’s childhood love of drawing and dreams of becoming a famous artist; her move from Japan to America and covering her paintings in hundreds of dots; her successes, experimental phases and performance art; and her return to Japan covering the world – and her beloved pumpkins – in dots.

Yayoi Kasuma Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry written and illustrated by Fausto Gilberti. This is the third in a new series of picture-book biographies on contemporary artists for creative and curious kids (which include Jackson Pollock Splashed Paint and Wasn’t Sorry and Yves Klein Painted Everything Blue and Wasn’t Sorry).