🎉Yayoi Kusama: A Record-Smashing Universe of Dots & Mirrors ✨Kusama smashed museum attendance records in Australia. Now Cologne gets its turn!👏02.04.2026, 11:00 Uhr
and 02.04.2026, 15:00 Uhr
Museum Ludwig

A Smile, 150 Years in the Making 😊 – Wrap up

Our recent ArtTalk on Smile – The Cultural History of the Smile in Western Photography was extraordinary ⭐

Through a fascinating selection of photographs spanning more than 150 years, we explored how the way “smiling” for the camera has changed.

Early portraits were serious and composed. Long exposure times and social conventions meant emotions were rarely shown.

Gradually, with faster cameras and the rise of film culture, the corners of the mouth began to lift. Then something curious happened. In contemporary photography it became cool again to look serious 😎😁

Highlights? Many! Here’s one: several ArtTalkers shared their own photos. It added a wonderfully personal layer to the conversation.

Afterwards many of us gathered in the museum café ☕, continuing the discussion. Thank you all for your lively participation. It is exactly this spirit that makes every ArtTalk special 💖

But even before our Smile ArtTalk began, we were already confronted with something else in the museum foyer …

Yayoi Kusama’s large pumpkin and many, many silver balls 🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶

*An awesome preview of the upcoming Kusama blockbuster exhibition (14 March – 2 August 2026).

XXX Image: Anke Kellerwessel

Next ArtTalk: Enter Yayoi Kusama’s Universe 🌏💫

What happens when an iconic 96 year-old artist turns dots, mirrors, and repetition into entire worlds you can step inside?

This major retrospective presents around 300 works spanning more than 70 years of Kusama’s career. These mirrored installations play with reflection and the sensation of endless space ✨Her iconic polka dots, pumpkin sculptures, and Infinity Mirror Rooms have become a kind of trademark, getting millions of likes on social media. The exhibition takes us on a fascinating journey through Kusama’s entire life; from her first drawing, dating back to ca.1934, to a newly commissioned installation. The show spans a wide range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, fashion, performance, and literature.

It is the biggest exhibitions Museum Ludwig is hosting this year for the 50th jubilee 🥳celebration 🎉

And - good news - I got them! I finally secured ArtTalk tour slots 🎟️

After three weeks of emails, calls, and even a formal complaint letter to the Museumsdienst, the time slots were confirmed - yipee! Places are very limited. Please register early and come prepared to be blown-away 🌌🌌🌌

So excited to share this extraordinary artist with you all and her mesmerising, shimmering, imaginative work - won’t you join us?

Artfully yours,
Karla

Karla Schlapfer: ArtTalks founder, Art Historian (UC Berkeley) Accredited Coach

Resources for you

• Yayoi Kusama: Obsessed with Polka Dots

  🔗 A short, beautifully produced video and text piece from the Tate, featuring Kusama speaking in her own words alongside curator Francis Morris. It traces her journey from rural Japan to the New York art scene and back to Tokyo, covering her Infinity Nets, her Accumulation sculptures, and her Infinity Rooms.

• Yayoi Kusama’s Infinite Vision Unfolds in Europe

  🔗 A recent review of the Fondation Beyeler leg of this very same travelling retrospective that is now coming to Museum Ludwig!

ArtTalk Sign Up

Sessions

Session 1: 02.04.2026, 11:00 Uhr Register here

Session 2: 02.04.2026, 15:00 Uhr Register here

Sign Up Information

Register as soon as possible. The museum is expecting large crowds (people flying into Cologne to visit the show) and places are first come, first serve. Currently, about half of the ArtTalk places for April 2 are taken - (July 2 is filling too). I will start a waiting list if places are full. Remember: this is new, like in Paris or London, you must book a time slot online to visit the show. I have guaranteed time slots for our ArtTalks and will print out our tickets so you don’t have to. Cologne citizens still bring their IDs.

Venue

Museum Ludwig, Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln

Fee

Regular ArtTalk 28€; no reduced rate for this special exhibition.

Please transfer the ArtTalk fee with your registration.

Bank Account

DE 17 6723 0000 4019 2455 50

Further Information

Entrance price included for Cologne citizens on long museum Thursday. We’ll meet in the middle of the central foyer, in front of the main cashier, at the column with the BLUE dot. Feel free to reach out to me Karla Schlaepfer: info@art-talks.de, if you have any questions, happy to help!