Kusama: Cosmic Nature

Many museums remain closed, but at least spring has sprung. This week’s Apollo Art Diary picks out four arty gardens to enjoy… 

Yayoi Kusama’s artistic work owes much to her engagement with the natural world; as a child she would spend hours among the fields of her family’s seed nursery in Matsumoto. In this display at New York Botanical Garden (until 31 October), early works such as her Narcissus Garden (1966) are installed amid the flowers; there are also two new monumental sculptures, Dancing Pumpkin and I Want to Fly to the Universe, and her hallucinatory ‘obliteration greenhouse’, Flower Obsession (2017). It’s also a great opportunity, were any needed, to take a look at the NYBG’s famous rose garden, the native plant garden, and its Victorian-style greenhouses. Find out more from the NYBG’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees (2002/21), Yayoi Kusama. Photo: Robert Benson Photography; courtesy Ota Fine Arts and David Zwirner

I Want to Fly to the Universe (2020), Yayoi Kusama. Photo: Robert Benson Photography; courtesy Ota Fine Arts and David Zwirner

Narcissus Garden (1966/2021), installed at New York Botanical Gardens. Photo: Robert Benson Photography; courtesy Ota Fine Arts and David Zwirner