Kusama's delicate drawings both illustrate and interpret Hans Christian Andersen's tale
Hans Christian Andersens fairy tale The Little Mermaid (1839), a story about a girl from the sea who followed her dreams and suffered a disastrous fate on land, is known all over the world (particularly in its animated incarnation). But the familiar story is brought to new life in this gorgeous edition, a collaboration between the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and artist Yayoi Kusama.
Paired with Hans Christian Andersens original text, the densely patterned, undulating line drawings of Kusamas Love Forever series (20047) conjure up storms in the roiling waves of the ocean, the Little Mermaids vast underwater kingdom and her longing to live in the human world. Kusamas fertile, endlessly repeating forms are an ideal match for the poetic and disturbing universe evoked in the fairy tale; the result is a true collaboration. Kusamas drawings both illustrate and interpret Andersens story, bringing it to terrifying life, and Andersens words lend narrative content to Kusamas landscapes of unblinking eyes, curling tendrils and disembodied profiles.
Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) first left Japan at the age of 28, landing in late 1950s New York. Her oeuvre, now spanning more than 50 years, includes painting, performance, installations and environments, sculpture, film, fashion, design and literary work. She was recently named the worlds most popular artist, based on annual figures reported by The Art Newspaper for global museum attendance in 2014.
