Women Artists: Yayoi Kusama 

To start off class, the 3rd and 4th grade read parts of an article from The Guardian, called "Women in Art: Why Are All the "Great" Artists Men?" The article discussed the amount of art by women sold in auction houses and galleries as opposed to the amount of art by men. Even though most students in art school are female, most of the art in galleries is made by men. We talked about why that might be, and why studying female artists is important!

Next, the 3rd and 4th grade learned about a new modern female artist, Yayoi Kusama. 

Kusama was born in Japan in 1929. She moved to New York City in 1957, and stayed until moving back to Japan in the 1970s. Kusama is best known for her patterns - particularly polka dots! She recently had an exhibit in New York City, called "I Who Have Arrived in Heaven". 

After making observations about her art, we settled on one major factor: patterns. Kusama loves patterns, especially polkadots. 

She said, "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."

We spent so much time in exciting discussion that we barely had time for our project! We began making patterns, which we will finish next class.