The Limits of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity

Years before the polka-dotted pumpkins, before the Instagrammable Infinity Mirror Rooms, Yayoi Kusama made art that was charged with oppositional energy. Her performances, in which she painted dots onto the naked bodies of her collaborators, were an expression of ’60s counterculture. They were protests against the Vietnam War, rebukes to the art market. Her Accumulations—soft sculptures of furniture or common household items covered in stuffed, handsewn penis shapes—were hilarious critiques of…