Source : the age
Tokyo: Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama has died aged 97.
Her studio confirmed her death in a statement posted to her website on Thursday (AEST) but noted she had died several weeks ago.
“It is with profound sorrow that [we confirm] the passing of Yayoi Kusama at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, at the age of 97,” says the statement from Yayoi Kusama Inc and Yayoi Kusama Studio.
“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.
“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.”
Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited, including in the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at London’s Tate Modern.
Her works were also the subject of major exhibitions in Australia, including at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2024, at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art in 2018 and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009. Her NGV exhibition broke attendance records at the time.
Kusama was renowned for her colourful spotted sculptures of giant pumpkins and her mirrored light installations that, for the viewer, felt like gazing into infinity.
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, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.
“Polka dots are fabulous,” Kusama said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, appearing in her signature orange bob cut wig and polka dot-covered attire.
“I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw,” she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. “I will keep painting until I die.”
Frustrated with the confining nature of Japanese society, Kusama left for New York at 27, where she made a name for herself with her paintings, inspired by hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers she had seen since childhood.
She also wrote, took part in anti-war activities during the 1960s, and reportedly influenced artists such as Andy Warhol.
Kusama, who was candid about her mental health struggles, said New York gave her neuroses. 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,” Kusama 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.”
With Bloomberg, Reuters
Chris Hook is Culture News Editor Sydney for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
