next post previous post

Only because of an article published on EQ, I have made the link between the all familiar tube map and the artist on it.

For the Londoners out there who are used to see the tube pocket maps everyday and wonder who the hell is the artist: until the end of this month the tube map cover artist is Yayoi Kusama.

Art on the Underground has commissioned one of Japan's most famous living artists, Yayoi Kusama, to create the 15th Pocket Tube Map cover in the series. The design is entitled Polka Dots Festival in London and will appear on the front cover of millions of Pocket Tube Maps from December 12th, 2011.

For the commission, Kusama, whose career spans a remarkable seven decades, uses her signature pattern of cartoon-like dots, coloured in red, blue and yellow. The dots spill across the image creating a sense of endless variation and eternity. There is a psychedelic intensity to the patterning that reveals the artist's meditative state and dynamic vision.

While I am at it, here's some of the past tube map covers from famous (mostly British) artists:

David Shrigley (Jan 2006)

Cornelia Parker (Jan 2008)

Liam Gillick (Jan 2008)

Richard Long (Sept 2009)

Barbara Kruger (May 2010) 

Paul Noble (Mar 2009)

Micheal Landy (Aug 2011) 

share