Yayoi Kusama is opening her own museum in Tokyo

Queen of patterns Yayoi Kusama is opening her own museum in Bentencho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. The 87-year-old artist began work on the museum back in 2014 when she commissioned architecture practice Kume Sekkei to build a five storey building resembling a lantern.

The museum’s director is Tensei Tatebata, president of Tama Art University and director of Saitama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. To celebrate the museum’s opening, a new exhibition of Yayoi’s works, Creation is a lonely work, love is precisely the approach to art will open on 1 October 2017. Tickets will be available on 28 August and the exhibition will run until 25 February 2018.

According to Art Net the museum will hold “two rotating exhibitions annually”. The second and third floors of the building will contain paintings and sculptures by the artist and the fourth will display her admired installation Infinity Mirror Rooms. The top floor will be a reading room including archival material.

The announcement was released relatively quietly on the artist’s website. Her representation David Zwirner explained to Art Net she “wanted to keep it as a surprise for her fans”.