Yayoi Kusama, the polka dot pioneer who defined a generation, dies aged 97
The Japanese avant-garde artist, whose immersive infinity rooms and vibrant motifs captured the global imagination, has died in a Tokyo hospital.
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist renowned for her polka dot artworks and mirrored infinity room installations, has died at the age of 97. According to The Guardian, she passed away in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August, marking the end of a career that spanned seven decades and bridged the gap between high art and mass cultural consumption.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama’s artistic journey was shaped by an unhappy childhood and lifelong hallucinations. Despite her family’s initial disapproval, she dedicated herself to professional art in her early twenties, eventually escaping a stagnant postwar Japan in 1957. She moved to New York with 1 million yen stitched into her clothes, where she became a provocative figure in the 1960s art scene.
Her mental health deteriorated in the 1970s, leading her to return to Japan in 1977. She checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo that offered art therapy, providing the stability she needed to pursue her projects. For decades, she lived in the hospital while working in a studio across the road, often painting six days a week until dinner.
Interest in Kusama’s work waned for a period before experiencing a significant resurgence in the 1990s. This shift was driven by her immersive installations, which built on her 1965 work Infinity Mirror Room: Phalli’s Field. Half a century later, these environments connected with audiences in the Instagram age, attracting millions of art lovers around the world and cementing her status as a global superstar.
Her cultural reach extended to major commercial and institutional collaborations, including a 2023 takeover of Louis Vuitton’s flagship store in Paris and a 2024 exhibition in Australia that became the most popular in the country’s history. The record-breaking attendance highlighted her rare ability to maintain artistic integrity while achieving massive public engagement.
Kusama’s legacy is defined by her fixation on repetition, dots, and the concept of “self-obliteration.” From her early “happenings” in New York to her final paintings in the My Eternal Soul series, her work translated personal psychological struggles into universal visual experiences.
