Yayoi Kusama, Renowned Japanese 'Queen of Polka Dots', Passes Away at 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, globally celebrated for her iconic polka-dot paintings, vibrant pumpkin sculptures, and mesmerizing immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, has passed away at the age of 97.

Kusama’s company announced on Thursday that the artist died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14. The official statement noted that she kept painting until her final moments, tirelessly exploring themes of eternal love and the soul.

Born in Matsumoto in 1929, Kusama endured a challenging childhood filled with family turbulence. She turned to drawing at a young age to process the vivid hallucinations she experienced, translating dots, nets, and infinity motifs into striking artwork. She once described how dots would fill her vision across her surroundings, inspiring her lifelong artistic focus.

After initial art studies in Japan, Kusama relocated to the United States in the late 1950s, rapidly making her mark on the New York avant-garde scene through net paintings, soft sculptures, and anti-war body painting protests. She moved back to Japan in 1973 and voluntarily checked into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo in 1977, living there for the remainder of her life while commuting daily to a nearby studio to create her art.

Her signature style relied on repetitive patterns resembling nets, swirls, and worms, though polka dots remained her most defining feature across canvases and light-filled installations alike. Embracing her status as an art celebrity in her later decades, Kusama collaborated with major fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and saw her imagery featured widely on commercial products.

As her global prominence soared, her exhibitions drew massive audiences and record-breaking auction prices, such as the $10.5m sale of her 1959 painting Untitled (Nets) in 2022. She was also awarded the Order of Culture, Japan’s highest artistic honor, in 2016.

Art dealer David Zwirner, who represented Kusama for 15 years, remarked that she was undoubtedly the most famous living artist worldwide at the time of her death, noting her profound impact on minimalism, pop art, and performance art.