Famed Contemporary Artist Yayoi Kusama Joins the 93rd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade® With the Debut of the “Love...
October 23 2019 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
Yayoi Kusama joins the Parade’s illustrious
Blue Sky Gallery – a series of balloons which highlight inflatable
artworks by some of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists;
the new high-flying art coincides with an exhibition of Kusama’s
new work at the celebrated David Zwirner gallery in New York
City
This Thanksgiving, the world’s most renowned female contemporary
artist will take her iconic art to new heights as Yayoi Kusama
joins the legendary Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade®. On Thursday,
November 28, 2019, Kusama’s Love Flies Up to the Sky balloon will
debut in the annual holiday spectacle in front of more than 3.5
million spectators and more than 50 million viewers nationwide, as
the latest entry in the Parade’s Blue Sky Gallery series, which
invites celebrated contemporary artists to contribute artworks to
the high-flying lineup.
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Yayoi Kusama, the world-renowned artist,
joins the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s Blue Sky Gallery series
of balloons designed by contemporary artists with the introduction
of her creation “Love Flies Up to the Sky” this November. (Photo:
Business Wire)
The Love Flies Up to the Sky balloon was developed by the artist
from face motifs that appear in her My Eternal Soul series of
paintings--a body of work that she began in 2009. Vibrant and
animated, the paintings embody Kusama’s innovative exploration of
form and revolve around a tension between abstraction and
figuration. The artist’s signature dots — which recur throughout
her practice — also feature prominently in the Macy’s Parade
balloon design.
Initially planned as works to be hung in sequence, Kusama’s My
Eternal Soul series has become an ongoing project. A number of
paintings from the series were shown in the United States at the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., in 2017.
This exhibition subsequently traveled to the Seattle Art Museum,
The Broad, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Cleveland Museum of Art,
and the High Museum, Atlanta. Over 40 paintings from the iconic
series will be on view at the forthcoming exhibition of the
artist’s work at David Zwirner in New York in November 2019.
“In 2005, we began featuring inflatable artworks by the world’s
most renowned contemporary artists in the Macy’s Parade lineup with
the hope of bringing fine art to the masses and making it more
accessible,” said Susan Tercero, executive producer of Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade. “This year the world’s most popular living
female artist, the iconic Yayoi Kusama, joins the Parade’s
acclaimed Blue Sky Gallery series of balloons, making these
creations a collection of high-flying art worthy of museums around
the world. We can’t wait for millions to enjoy the hypnotic,
colorful and whimsical beauty of Love Flies Up to the Sky this
Thanksgiving.”
A Kusama creation, the balloon artwork is being transformed from
a conceptual drawing into high-flying art by the artists of Macy’s
Parade Studio under Kusama’s exacting guidance. Using their
expertise in 3D modeling, aerodynamic design and fabrication, the
balloon specialists at the Parade Studio have constructed the work
of art and painstakingly painted more than 300 of Kusama’s iconic
dots on the multidimensional face and radiant biomorphic shapes
that make up the unique design.
Coinciding with her upcoming exhibition at New York’s David
Zwirner gallery, Kusama’s Love Flies Up to the Sky balloon joins an
elite roster of artistic flying wonders previously featured in the
Macy’s Parade including works by Tom Otterness (Humpty Dumpty),
Jeff Koons (Rabbit), Keith Haring (Figure with Heart), Takashi
Murakami (Kaikai & Kiki), Tim Burton (B.), KAWS (Companion) and
FriendsWithYou (Little Cloud).
Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at David Zwirner in New York will be
on view from November 9 – December 14, 2019 at the gallery’s 537
West 20th Street location. The exhibition will feature paintings,
sculptures, an immersive installation, and a new Infinity Mirror
Room. This exhibition is Kusama’s fourth show with the gallery.
The 93rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade kicks off on
Thursday, November 28, 2019 and will be broadcast nationally on
NBC-TV, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in all time zones.
ABOUT MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
With more than 50 million viewers across the country and more
than 3.5 million spectators lining up along the streets of New York
City each year, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a national
icon that has grown into a world-famous holiday event. Since 1924,
the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has marked the official start of
the holiday season. Growing in size and scale, the Parade proudly
marches down a more than 2-mile route in New York City with more
than 8,000 participants in tow including Macy’s colleagues, their
families, celebrities, athletes, clowns and dance groups, all
spreading holiday cheer. Featuring fabulous floats and America’s
best marching bands, the signature of the Parade continues to be
the world-famous helium balloons.
For more information on the Macy’s Parade please visit
macys.com/parade or follow @macys on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram and join the social conversation via #MacysParade.
(NYSE:M)
ABOUT YAYOI KUSAMA
Contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Japan in
1929 and has been creating art for more than eight decades. During
her lengthy career her work has transcended two of the most
important art movements of the second half of the twentieth
century: pop and minimalism. Today, she is the world’s best-selling
female artist and holds the record for the highest price paid at
auction for a work by a living female artist. According to a recent
review of museum attendance by The Art Newspaper, she is also the
world’s most popular artist. From 2012-2018, Yayoi Kusama had over
55 solo shows and exhibitions at more than 45 art institutions
worldwide, covering more than 23 countries and breaking longtime
attendance records. Over 6 million visitors have attended these
exhibitions, many often waiting more than two hours to enter the
exhibition and experience Kusama’s transformative work. The North
American Tour of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, which traveled
from 2017-2019 to six institutions, had over 599,800 visitors.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191023005454/en/
Orlando Veras, Macy’s Media Relations 646-429-7450;
orlando.veras@macys.com
Julia Lukacher, David Zwirner for Yayoi Kusama 212-727-2070;
jlukacher@davidzwirner.com
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