H.C. Andersen and Yayoi Kusama: The Little Mermaid

“Her skin was as soft and her tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like all the others she had no feet. Her body ended in a fish tail.”

In his thirties, H.C. Andersen became a world-renowned writer, as he wrote the story The Little Mermaid and other fairy tales. The Little Mermaid, a tale of a girl pursuing her dreams and suffering a tragic destiny in the world of humankind, is known worldwide. Even a statue depicting the Little Mermaid has become an unofficial national symbol of Andersen’s homeland, Denmark.

The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is an artist of great renown. The Lousiana Museum of Modern Art has in collaboration with Kusama decided to have works from her series Love Forever illustrate Andersen’s fairy tale, encompassing the poet’s words. In this way, two unique worlds meet and create new meanings, as if they were made for each other.