Yayoi Kusama at Dallas Museum of Art
Beginning in May, the Dallas Museum of Art will present Yayoi Kusama’s All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016), an iteration of the artist’s iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms series that was acquired by the Museum in 2017. The boundary-pushing experiential work, which allows the viewer to become a part of the art, incorporates the pumpkin—one of the artist’s quintessential symbols, which she has described as a form of self-portraiture—and draws on several of Kusama’s characteristic themes, including infinity, the sublime, and obsessive repetition.
The audience-favorite installation returns to the DMA for the first time since 2018, where it will be on view from May 7, 2025, through January 18, 2026. Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art.
“Reflecting on her long career, it is easy to see why Yayoi Kusama has continued to occupy such a prominent position in contemporary art and mainstream culture,” Vivian Li, the DMA’s Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art, said. “She has consistently pushed boundaries, expanding the physical and perceptual limits of what art can be. With the first reinstallation of this room in seven years, we look forward to introducing new audiences to the work of this iconic artist and welcoming back visitors who fell in love with the installation when it first went on view.”
The DMA’s presentation of All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016) celebrates Yayoi Kusama’s over-seven-decade-long career with a timeline contextualizing the development of her radically innovative practice and the importance of the pumpkin as a symbol in her oeuvre. Kusama first began incorporating the Japanese pumpkin, or kabocha squash, into her art in the late 1940s. During her childhood, she encountered them growing near her home in rural Matsumoto, Japan, and was drawn to their whimsical forms.
Yayoi Kusama Pumpkins
After moving to New York City in the late 1950s, Kusama debuted her first Infinity Mirror Room, Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, in 1965, representing a seminal moment in the trajectory of her increasingly experiential practice. Back in Japan in the late 1970s, Kusama began to reengage with the motif of the pumpkin, and around 1981 she began incorporating pumpkins into her dot-patterned works. In 1993 Kusama became the first solo artist to represent Japan at the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The show was anchored by her first pumpkin-themed mirror room, Mirror Room (Pumpkin), an immersive polka-dotted environment containing a group of papier-mâché pumpkins endlessly reflected inside a peep-in mirror box.
Expanding on this original pumpkin room, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016) focuses the reflective chamber on a series of acrylic yellow gourds covered in black polka dots, appearing as an endless field of glowing pumpkins. The work invites viewers to step inside the mirrored space and fully immerse themselves in Kusama’s creation, becoming part of the art in an intimate and individualized experience.
“As an institution committed to growing and presenting a world-class contemporary art collection, the Dallas Museum of Art is proud to be the only museum in North America to house one of Kusama’s iconic pumpkin-themed mirror rooms,” Tamara Wootton Forsyth, Interim Director and Marcus-Rose Family Deputy Director of the DMA, said. “This extraordinary installation offers a rare opportunity for our community to immerse themselves in Kusama’s vision and explore the infinite wonders of the universe through her eyes.”
All visitors and DMA Members are required to have a timed special exhibition ticket. Two visitors may enter the installation at one time and will experience the Infinity Mirror Room for a short, allotted period. Photography is allowed with cell phones and small personal cameras. Tripods, monopods and selfie sticks are not permitted.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an inclusive, welcoming space for everyone to see its global collection of more than 25,000 works spanning 5,000 years of history and a range of world cultures. The DMA is one of the largest art museums in the United States and is located in one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, with free general admission for all visitors. As an Open Access institution, the DMA offers digital images of all public-domain artworks in its collection for use by the public. The DMA provides educational programming for all ages, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events and dramatic performances. The Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., and is always open at dma.org.
