Yayoi Kusama, Japanese avant-garde artist, dies aged 97

Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, who reached worldwide fame thanks to her signature polka-dot covered installations, has died at the age of 97.

She passed away in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August, her company Yayoi Kusama Inc said on Thursday.

“Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation,” the statement reads, “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.”

Recognisable from her iconic bright red wig, Kusama artist had voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, and was known for her large-scale installations and her psychedelic colour schemes.

In the 80’s and 90’s, she became a cultural icon and one of the most globally recognisable artists, after having been widely overlooked for decades.

In the early 60’s, the artist started producing sculptures made up of pieces of furniture covered with white, fabric-stuffed phallic shapes, causing a stir in the male-dominated New York art scene.

In 1965, her “Infinity Mirror Rooms”, a piece of work in which mirrors and lights create seemingly endless spaces, attracted millions of visitors. Her polka-dots motifs and pumpkins later gained iconic status.

Many of her ideas from this period were appropriated by white male artists, including Andy Warhol, and were displayed at more prestigious galleries.

In 1977, she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo that offered art therapy courses, where she would live and work for the remainder of her life. This environment allowed her to focus on creating art.

Kusama went on to become Japan's first solo artist to represent the country at the 1993 Venice Biennale.

In 2001, she was awarded the Asahi Prize, recognising outstanding cultural, academic and artistic contributions in Japan, while in 2022, her works became some of the highest-earning in the world for a female artist, with one of her paintings fetching about $10.5m at auction in 2022.