Uncover Yayoi Kusama’s unseen works in Switzerland

‘The phenomenon is that this virtually 100-year-old lady who lives in close to isolation, other than a number of individuals in her workforce and some associates, manages to speak by artwork throughout all boundaries to individuals of all ages, all backgrounds and people who are usually will not be occupied with artwork. That’s actually very, very uncommon,’ says Sam Keller, director of Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, the place a Yayoi Kusama retrospective runs till 25 January 2026.

On the present’s preview day in October, co-hosted by one of many fondation’s key companions, Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, mild is bouncing round Kusama’s mirrored dice Infinity Mirrored Room – Phantasm Contained in the Coronary heart, a 2025 set up positioned within the backyard, whereas autumn leaves are mirrored within the silver balls of Narcissus Backyard that float across the lake on the Renzo Piano-designed gallery.

‘It truly is meditative watching the balls transfer throughout the pond,’ says Keller of the work that was first proven guerrilla-style on the Venice Biennale in 1966. Again then, Kusama was a plucky underground star working in her adopted house of New York. It was not till 1993 that she represented Japan formally on the biennale: a milestone second in a profession and life that has made her one of the crucial recognised and oldest residing artists on this planet.

The Fondation Beyeler present is the primary dedicated to the artist in Switzerland and the workforce is anticipating over half 1,000,000 guests who will marvel on the sheer vary of her work, which spans from small delicate watercolours to a completely immersive set up that includes big inflated black and yellow tentacles, entitled The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cowl the Universe (2019/2024). The dots and mirrors are delightfully discombobulating, like peering into an abyss. That sense of teetering, of reaching into the cosmos, is threaded all through all Kusama’s unbelievably prolific output.

‘I believe individuals sense that there is quite a lot of integrity, authenticity in her quest. Life and artwork will not be separate. It’s not an artist’s profession, it is her life,’ says Keller.

What provides this exhibition nice power is the inclusion of 130 beforehand unseen works within the 300-strong show. Curator Mouna Mekouar labored with the Kusama Basis to seek out beforehand undervalued works comparable to etchings and a collection of small luminescent watercolours that includes landscapes and flowers in bloom.