"A polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots become movement... Polka dots are a way to infinity."
1963: Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama turns dots into avant garde art
Like her contemporary Roy Lichtenstein, Yayoi Kusama was obsessed with dots, believing they contained messages for us about life and the universe. She started out by covering all the surfaces in her home with polka dots, then her naked assistants, calling these dotted landscapes her "infinity nets." The dots came to her in hallucinations; she now lives voluntarily in a mental hospital in Tokyo, close to her studio where she still produces work to this day. "If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago," she has said, yet more proof of the life-saving and restorative capabilities of polka dots.
