Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was an American Pop artist who turned consumer products and celebrities into paintings and repeated screenprints using mass-media images.
Painter
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist known for repeated dots and nets, immersive installations, mirrored spaces, and themes of infinity.
Yayoi Kusama quick facts
Kusama’s painted works range from hand-worked Infinity Nets on canvas to spray-painted patterns on paperboard and other supports in her practice.
| Full name | Yayoi Kusama |
|---|---|
| Born | March 22, 1929 · Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan |
| Died | August 14, 2026 · Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Movements | Pop Art, Minimalism, and Feminist art |
| Paint types | Oil paint · Spray paint |
| Other media | Pastel, ink, sculpture, installation, performance, film, collage, and writing |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper · Painting board · Cardboard and paperboard · Fabric, including seed sacks |
| Painting methods | Allover repetition of hand-painted loops and dots, often built into thick, webbed impasto |
| Common subjects | Polka dots, infinity nets, pumpkins, flowers, eyes, mirrored spaces, and cosmic imagery |
| Notable works | Infinity Nets, Narcissus Garden, the Infinity Mirror Rooms, and the My Eternal Soul series |
Sources: Yayoi Kusama official biography, MoMA: No. F., MoMA: The Atlantic Ocean, MoMA: Untitled (1978), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo: Chinese Rocks, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo: Earth of Accumulation, and Yayoi Kusama Museum exhibition checklist.
Paint types used by Yayoi Kusama
Kusama’s materials range from hand-painted oil Infinity Nets to sprayed works on paperboard; collection records distinguish the medium and support.
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Oil paint
In No. F (1959), MoMA documents oil on canvas and describes Kusama’s densely interlaced Infinity Net marks, built into a field of repeated brushwork. The canvas carries a painstaking painted surface that differs from her later spray-painted works on paperboard.
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Spray paint
MoMA records Untitled (1978) as spray paint on calligraphy paperboard. Kusama used the industrial medium through a net to create repeated patterns on a rigid sheet, distinct from the hand-painted oil Infinity Nets on canvas. The object record names both medium and support.
Sources: MoMA: No. F, MoMA: Untitled (1978).; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo: Earth of Accumulation
Painting surfaces used by Yayoi Kusama
Kusama used canvas for oil paintings and paperboard for spray-painted patterns, with other records documenting paper and fabric in her practice.
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Paper
Kusama’s works on paper include drawings, prints, and painted compositions. MoMA records Untitled (1978) as spray paint on calligraphy paperboard, showing how a paper-based support carried repeated net patterns in a rigid sheet format. The record specifies paperboard rather than canvas.
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Canvas
MoMA documents No. F (1959) as oil on canvas. Its dense Infinity Net brushwork fills the flexible surface with repeated arcs, contrasting with the spray-painted patterns Kusama later made on paperboard. This early canvas example is documented directly in the museum collection.
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Painting Board
MoMA records The Atlantic Ocean (1959) as oil on canvas, while other collection entries document her painted panels. These rigid boards offered a support distinct from canvas and the paperboard sheets used for spray-painted patterns. The records keep these formats separate.
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Cardboard
MoMA records Kusama’s spray-painted Untitled (1978) on calligraphy paperboard. This rigid sheet supported repeated net patterns made with spray paint, distinguishing the work from her hand-painted oil paintings on canvas. The material record identifies both the sheet and paint in its collection entry.
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Fabric
Kusama painted on fabric seed sacks in early works, as described in her official biography. The utilitarian textile remains visible beneath painted marks, making the support part of the work’s material character rather than a hidden ground. This differs from her later canvas and paperboard examples.
Sources: Yayoi Kusama official biography, MoMA: No. F., MoMA: The Atlantic Ocean, MoMA: Untitled (1978), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo: Chinese Rocks.
Painters similar to Yayoi Kusama
Kusama’s repeated dots and nets connect her to artists using optical pattern, serial imagery, and bold graphic systems across painting and installation.
Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley is a British painter whose abstract compositions create optical movement through repeated lines, curves, shapes, and structured color.