On the eve of the opening of her exhibition Infinite Love on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama expressed “deep regret” over previous anti-Black feedback she made. The racist feedback have been detailed in a Hyperallergic article in June by journalist and documentary filmmaker Dexter Thomas.
“I deeply regret using hurtful and offensive language in my book,” Kusama stated in a press release on Friday, October 13, offered by SFMOMA and revealed within the San Francisco Chronicle. “My message has always been one of love, hope, compassion, and respect for all people. My lifelong intention has been to lift up humanity through my art. I apologize for the pain I have caused.”
Kusama’s assertion references her autobiography Infinity Net, first revealed in 2002, through which she characterizes Black individuals as “primitive, hyper-sexualized beings,” in keeping with Thomas’s reporting for Hyperallergic.
In the unique Japanese version of the e-book, Kusama additionally referred to as her New York neighborhood a “slum” the place actual property costs have been “falling by $5 a day” due to “black people shooting each other out front, and homeless people sleeping there.” These strains have been faraway from an English translation of the autobiography revealed in 2011.
“It was not a mistranslation,” Thomas noticed in his article. “The rest of the paragraph was intact; only the sentence about Black and unhoused people was deleted.”
In a press release to Hyperallergic, SFMOMA Director Chris Bedford stated his establishment “stands firmly against [Kusama’s] and all anti-Black sentiments” and introduced that programming addressing the artist’s troubling feedback is slated for spring 2024 (the present runs by August 2025). The museum has not but offered particulars on what this programming will entail.
“As an institution, SFMOMA is actively grappling with and exploring different methodologies for presenting artists who are at once visionary and flawed; who create inspiring work but also have histories of harmful behavior or painful biases,” Bedford stated.
SFMOMA’s assertion got here after a bunch of neighborhood members wrote emails and letters to the museum demanding that the establishment contextualize the brand new blockbuster present with details about Kusama’s racist views. After months of backwards and forwards with the museum, 4 of them participated in a Zoom name with Bedford, the lately appointed Chief Education and Community Engagement Officer Gamynne Guillotte, and different museum officers. The neighborhood members — retired well being employee and activist Catherine Cusic, artist Rodney Ewing, photojournalist Spike Kahn of San Fransisco’s artwork nonprofit Pacific Felt Factory, and author and educator Leticia Hernandez — stated that that they had initially hoped for a swift and enough response from the museum.
“When Hyperallergic‘s article got here out, we had cause to imagine that SFMOMA would take accountable motion,” Cusic stated in an interview. “We hoped that they would work with us and others in the community. To the contrary, for four months, all we got was a lot of rhetoric, from one staff person after another, until the weight of people emailing them became so great that they agreed to meet with us.”
“After refusing to take immediate action, the revelations in the press forced the museum to respond,” Cusic added.
Cusic cited the Bay Area’s lengthy custom of artwork activism and social justice organizing because the backdrop to her group’s efforts. “San Franciscans know how to organize,” she stated. “We also know each other across ethnic lines.”
Recently, SFMOMA has come beneath scrutiny for mountaineering up its admission prices by $10 for the show, which consists of two of the artist’s “mirror rooms” that guests can expertise for as much as two minutes every. Starting as we speak, the admission costs are $30 for adults and $23 for people between the ages of 19 and 24. The present is bought out till the top of November, in keeping with the museum’s website.
Kusama is without doubt one of the world’s highest-selling girls artists, with works frequently promoting for tens of millions of {dollars} at public sale. The neighborhood activists concerned within the current Zoom dialog at the moment are calling on the museum to take a position among the present’s proceeds in packages for native Black artists.
“I would like to see SFMOMA become more responsive to local artists of color,” Ewing advised Hyperallergic. “Not only with solo and group exhibitions but also with resources for artists and curators of color.”
“This cannot be a knee-jerk response to the current issue with Kusama, but one that becomes part of the fabric of the institution.”
