Yayoi Kusama, 'Polka Dot Queen,' Dies at 97
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, known worldwide for her polka dots and immersive installations, has died at the age of 97. Her company confirmed on Thursday that she passed away from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14. The announcement triggered tributes from fans and cultural figures around the world, as reported by multiple outlets including Al Jazeera, NPR News, and South China Morning Post.
A statement from her company expressed "profound sorrow" and described her "extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation." It noted that she "continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush," and that she pursued "an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry."
Early Life and Artistic Beginnings
Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama was the youngest daughter of a wealthy family. She began producing her signature dot and net patterns at age 10, after experiencing hallucinations that she later described in her autobiography. "One day, after seeing a tablecloth with a red flower pattern on a desk, I saw the same red flower pattern all over the ceiling, windows and pillars," she wrote. "It filled the room, and covered my body."
In a 2017 interview, she said: "I still see hallucinations even now. Dots come flying everywhere – on my dress, the floor, things I’m carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them." Her work, often featuring bold red wigs and spotted outfits, was widely seen as an expression of her long battle with mental illness.
Rise to Fame in the United States
After studying art in Japan, Kusama moved to the United States in the late 1950s, where she quickly became a prominent figure in New York's avant-garde scene. Despite facing discrimination as a Japanese woman, she gained fame for her large-scale paintings and provocative 1960s "happenings" that involved body painting and polka dots. She also launched a fashion line, established a "Church of Self-Obliteration," and styled herself the "High Priestess of Polka Dots" to officiate at a gay wedding.
NPR News reported that during her time in the U.S., Kusama wrote to artist Georgia O'Keeffe after discovering her book, and O'Keeffe encouraged her to come to the country. She also staged public happenings during the Vietnam War and wrote a letter to President Nixon. Her dealer, Richard Castellane, described her work in 2017, and curator Mika Yoshitake noted the challenges she faced in a male-dominated art world that often exoticized her.
Return to Japan and Later Life
In the 1970s, Kusama returned to Japan and voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life. Despite her confinement, she continued to produce art daily, commuting to a nearby studio. In 2017, the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo, showcasing her work, including the exhibition "I Would Overcome Death and Go on Living," which featured the video projection "Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict."
Her designs appeared on a wide range of products, from cellphone cases to Lancôme lipsticks and Louis Vuitton items. Her painting "Untitled (Nets)" (1959) sold for $10.5 million in 2022. She also received the Order of Culture, Japan's highest honor for artists, in 2016.
Hong Kong Tributes
In Hong Kong, cultural figures and fans paid tribute to Kusama. West Kowloon Cultural District Authority board chairman Bernard Chan expressed sadness, recalling a trip to Tokyo in March 2023 to thank her in person. "A moment I will treasure forever was travelling to Tokyo in March 2023, to thank her in person," Chan said in a social media post. He noted that the M+ museum had hosted the "Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now" exhibition from November 2022 to May 2023.
Local design studio AllRightsReserved also expressed sadness, and Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, former CEO of developer New World Development, shared a photo of himself with Kusama taken in Japan in 2022.
Global Reaction
Fans from around the world shared tributes online. One Japanese X user wrote: "I've had the privilege of viewing her paintings and your works several times. Bold, delicate, beautiful. That world was one I had never known. And to me, she was also someone truly endearing. May you rest in peace."
David Zwirner, her representative, said Kusama was "without a doubt the most famous living artist in the world at the time of her passing." Her death marks the end of a career that spanned decades and transformed personal struggle into art that resonated globally.