Yayoi Kusama, the celebrated Japanese avant-garde artist who won global acclaim for her immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms and polka-dot paintings, died August 14 at a hospital in Tokyo at age 97. Her representative David Zwirner, and the Yayoi Kusama Studio confirmed her death, noting she painted until her final days.
For decades, Kusama bridged the gap between avant-garde performance art and massive commercial success, turning lifelong struggles with mental health and hallucinations into an instantly recognizable aesthetic. Known for her signature scarlet and orange bob wigs and dot-covered attire, she remained active well into her later years, producing vibrant works from a studio near the psychiatric institution where she lived voluntarily since 1977.
From Postwar Tokyo to the New York Vanguard
Born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto City, central Japan, Kusama grew up in a household she later described as difficult, marked by family conflict. She began painting at a young age, seeking refuge from childhood hallucinations that involved flashes of light, dots and flowers. I still see hallucinations even now,
she told reporters in 2017, according to USA Today’s coverage of her life and career. Dots come flying everywhere – on my dress, the floor, things I’m carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them.
After studying traditional Japanese painting in Kyoto, Kusama felt restricted by societal expectations and moved to the United States in 1957, settling in New York City. At a time when American art was dominated by action painting, she forged her own path with her Infinity Net paintings featuring repetitive, undulating patterns.
She also became known for provocative public happenings
and anti-war demonstrations. In the late 1960s, she organized protests against the Vietnam War that involved body painting and polka dots on participants. In 1966, she presented an installation at the Venice Biennale called Narcissus Garden, featuring between 1,000 and 1,500 mirrored spheres that she attempted to sell to visitors for about $2 each alongside a sign reading Your Narcissism For Sale.
The Rise of the Polka Dot Empire and Infinity Rooms
Returning to Japan in 1973 as her mental health declined, Kusama checked herself into a psychiatric hospital four years later, where she maintained a daily studio routine across the street.
Her signature Infinity Rooms transformed mirrored spaces into immersive environments using flashing lights, water, and repeated sculptural elements.
Kusama’s visual vocabulary translated into massive commercial demand. Her international exhibitions drew enormous crowds, and her canvases regularly commanded seven figures at auction, including the 2022 sale of her 1959 painting Untitled (Nets) for $10.5 million.
“What kept me from ending my life was drawing and making art. That has never changed. It was through discovering my love of art that I have been able to survive and continue living to this day.”
Yayoi Kusama, via Vogue Japan
An Unwavering Dedication to Creation
Throughout her career, Kusama rejected narrow categorization as merely pop, avant-garde, or feminist, insisting that her work stemmed entirely from her internal compulsion to translate her visions onto canvas and into sculpture.
In a statement released after her death, the Yayoi Kusama Studio emphasized her lifelong commitment: She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.
While the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo and museums worldwide will continue to exhibit her permanent installations, her passing closes the chapter on one of the most resilient and prolific careers in modern art history.
