PURCHASE, N.Y.- The Neuberger Museum of Art presents Yayoi Kusama: Silvery Sea, on view through September 17, 2006. One of the star objects in the Museum’s permanent collection is Yayoi Kusama's Silvery Sea. Yayoi Kusama’s Silvery Sea (1981-82) is an extraordinary and historically significant piece in the diverse oeuvre of this pioneering feminist visual and performance artist. A full-sized rowboat, densely covered with silver painted work-gloves and plastic fruit, topped by brightly colored oars and a life-preserver, this sculpture is related to the accumulations Kusama began creating in the 1960s.

Sometimes referred to by the artist as “compulsion furniture,” these accumulations transform otherwise familiar objects such as sofas, couches or rowboats through obsessive, repeated encrustations that challenge their original purpose. A gift to the Neuberger by the artist, the work will be displayed alongside Kusama’s 1968 film Self-Obliteration. Created six years after her first accumulation, the film provides a framework within which to understand Kusama’s obsessional vision.

The Museum plays an important role in the curatorial studies program being developed at Purchase College by offering selected students the opportunity to conduct in-depth research on collection objects, which leads to meaningful professional training. For this exhibition, an art history graduate student, Jeff Mueller, is curating an exhibition around the Kusama object. Directed by Tracy Fitzpatrick, Adjunct Professor and Curator, Jeff is developing the thesis of the exhibition.

Silvery Sea will be contextualized by a series of documentary photographs of the artist’s works, such as this one from the 1980s. Jeff Mueller has worked on several other exhibition projects over the past two years, making him an ideal candidate for this project.