Yayoi Kusama, Japanese avant-garde artist known for polka dots and Infinity Rooms, dies at 97
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose polka dots and immersive installations made her one of the world's most recognizable contemporary artists, has died at the age of 97. Her studio announced on Thursday that she died on August 14 at a hospital in Tokyo; the cause of death was not disclosed.
In a statement, her studio said: "She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul." The statement added: "We will carry forward Kusama's wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world."
Early life and struggles
Kusama was born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Japan. Around the age of 10, she began experiencing hallucinations of dots, net patterns, and flowers — visions she attributed to the psychological strain of growing up with an unloving mother, who forbade her from painting. She later said her art was "an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease," as quoted in Bomb Magazine.
After attending the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, she held her first exhibitions in Matsumoto. Frustrated with what she called the "confining nature" of Japanese society, she moved to New York in 1958 (or at age 27, according to some accounts), where she quickly made a name for herself. Her mother reportedly provided financial support on the condition that she never return to Japan.
In New York, she found herself in an art scene dominated by action painting, while her distinctive dots remained outside the mainstream. She faced years of poverty and obscurity but continued to develop her style. Georgia O'Keeffe helped her gain a foothold in the US, and she befriended artists such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Cornell. She reportedly influenced Warhol, though this is not universally confirmed.
Artistic breakthroughs and happenings
Kusama's breakthrough came with her "Infinity Nets" paintings. In 1962, she sold her first infinity net painting to Frank Stella and Donald Judd for $75. Later, in 2014, her painting White No 28 sold for $7.1 million at auction — a record at the time for a living female artist.
She also staged provocative performances. In 1966, she presented Narcissus Garden at the Venice Biennale, placing 1,500 mirrored spheres and attempting to sell them for $2 each — officials stopped the sale. In 1968, she staged what she called New York's first "homosexual wedding" in Tribeca, and she also washed a Soviet flag outside the United Nations to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1993, she returned to the Venice Biennale as an official artist representing Japan.
During the late 1960s, her "happenings" included anti-war protests against the Vietnam War. In 1968, she also wrote to US President Richard Nixon, offering to sleep with him in exchange for ending the war.
Later life and global fame
Around 1977, a few years after returning to Japan, Kusama voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she lived for decades, being driven to her nearby studio each morning. She continued to create and exhibit, telling the Financial Times she wanted "to become more famous, even more famous."
Her fame exploded in the social media era. In 2018, The Broad museum in Los Angeles sold 90,000 advance tickets for a Kusama exhibition, and a yearlong show at Tate Modern in London sold out, with its one-year extension also selling out. She collaborated with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, and her works include Macaroni Girl, The Visionary Flowers, and Mirrored Corridor.
In 2024, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne hosted an immersive retrospective of her work, which by April 2025 became the most visited exhibition in Australian history, with more than 500,000 attendees. Her sculpture Flowers that Bloom in the Cosmos stands outside the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
Quotes and legacy
Kusama was known for her candid remarks about her mental health. In 2017, she said: "I still see hallucinations even now." She once described her process: "Dots come flying everywhere — on my dress, the floor, things I'm carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them."
In a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, she said: "Polka dots are fabulous." She also said: "I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw," and "I will keep painting until I die."
Kusama received Japan's Order of Culture in 2016. She described herself as "an artistic revolutionary" and said: "I create art for the healing of all mankind." In her final years, she told reporters: "I am so afraid, all the time, of everything," but also: "I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art."
Her influence is widely acknowledged. A 2026 retrospective at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne featured her work The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe. In 2017, an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC was temporarily closed after someone damaged an artwork while attempting a selfie.
Kusama's studio concluded: "We will carry forward Kusama's wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world."