Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97: Art world mourns loss of Japanese ‘polka dot queen’
The Japanese artist was aged 97 at the time of her death.
Famed avant-garde artist dubbed the “polka dot queen” Yayoi Kusama has died at the age of 97.
She died on August 14 at a hospital in Tokyo.
Kusama’s death was announced on her studio’s website on Thursday.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry,” it read.
“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.
“We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”
Her biggest ever show in Australia was at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2024, where a major retrospective of Kusama’s work was staged. More than 500,000 people attended the exhibition.
The late artist was born in Matsumoto City, Japan, in 1929.
Frustrated with the confining nature of Japanese society, Kusama left for New York at 27, where she quickly made a name for herself with her paintings, inspired by hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers she had seen since childhood.
Kusama was open about her mental health struggles over the years.
Around 1977, a few years after returning to Japan, she voluntarily entered a mental hospital and lived there for decades, being driven to her nearby studio each morning.
“I still see hallucinations even now,” she said in 2017.
“Dots come flying everywhere - on my dress, the floor, things I’m carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them.”
Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations.
She also wrote, took part in anti-war activities during the 1960s, and reportedly influenced artists such as Andy Warhol.
- With Reuters/AAP
