2024 Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (On View February 11 - June 30, 2024) Marie Selby Botanical GardensNEW

Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe:  Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series.

In the mid-1950s, Yayoi Kusama was a young artist living in Japan, where her future was very uncertain. Seeking advice from a more established female artist, Kusama wrote to Georgia O’Keeffe, whose work she greatly admired but whom she had never met. To Kusama’s surprise, O’Keeffe responded, thus establishing a correspondence that gave the young Japanese artist the courage to move to America and pursue her career in New York City, which was then the center of the art world. Kusama’s decision, with O’Keeffe’s encouragement, forever changed the course of modern art history.

The exhibition, which will be on view from February 11 through June 30, 2024, at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus, will explore the unexpected yet profoundly impactful mentoring relationship that developed between iconic artists Yayoi Kusama and Georgia O’Keeffe. The theme of the upcoming Goldstein Exhibition is the latest announcement of programming planned for Selby Gardens’ 50th anniversary season.

“Our 2024 Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition celebrates the work of Yayoi Kusama, who has become one of the world’s most influential contemporary artists and cultural figures,” said Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. “The exhibition will emphasize the meaningful connection between Kusama and fellow artist Georgia O’Keeffe, based on their personal correspondence at a critical point in Kusama’s artistic development. This show also will explore the ways in which the work of both artists is rooted in nature, befitting an art and horticultural experience set in a botanical garden.”

Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe | On view February 11 - June 30, 2024, Downtown Sarasota campus, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

In the mid-1950s, Yayoi Kusama was a young artist living in Japan, where her future was very uncertain. Seeking advice from a more established female artist, Kusama wrote to Georgia O’Keeffe, whose work she greatly admired but whom she had never met. To Kusama’s surprise, O’Keeffe responded, thus establishing a correspondence that gave the young Japanese artist the courage to move to America and Selby Gardens Announces 2024 Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition pursue her career in New York City, which was then the center of the art world. Kusama’s decision, with O’Keeffe’s encouragement, forever changed the course of modern art history. Selby Gardens’ Trustee Keith D. Monda is serving as the key lender to the exhibition. Additional loans have been secured from Richard and Ellen Sandor and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Dates
On view February 11 - June 30, 2024

Location
Downtown Sarasota campus, Tropical Conservatory, Gardens, The Museum of Botany & the Arts