Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her company said Thursday. She was 97.
The announcement made on her official website said she died on 14 August but did not give a cause of death.
Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Artist Yayoi Kusama poses for a photograph with a detail from her artwork “Love arrives at the Earth Carrying with it a Tale of the Cosmos” at the Tate Modern gallery in London (Reuters)
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.
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.
She also wrote, took part in anti-war activities during the 1960s, and reportedly influenced artists such as Andy Warhol.
FILE PHOTO: People look at Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s sculpture ‘Pumpkin’ in Kensington Palace Gardens in London, Britain, 9 July 2024 (Reuters)
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.”
FILE PHOTO: Artist Yayoi Kusama poses for a photograph with her artwork “Love arrives at the Earth Carrying with it a Tale of the Cosmos” at the Tate Modern gallery in London, Britain, 7 February 2012 (Reuters)
(With additional inputs from Reuters)