Renowned Japanese creator Yayoi Kusama, whose polka-dotted pumpkins and mirrored \u201cinfinity rooms\u201d made her one of the world\u2019s most recognisable artists, has died aged 97.<\/p>\n
Her studio announced the news on Thursday, saying Kusama had died at a Tokyo hospital on August 14, almost two weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d the statement from Yayoi Kusama Inc and Yayoi Kusama Studio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will carry forward Kusama\u2019s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama said she began experiencing hallucinations involving flashing lights, dots and flowers during childhood. <\/p>\n
Those experiences would go on to shape a unique, and eventually global, career in the arts.<\/p>\n
Those visions became central to her paintings, sculptures and immersive installations.<\/p>\n
She left Japan for the United States in 1957 and settled in New York the following year, becoming part of the city\u2019s experimental art scene.<\/p>\n
Kusama produced paintings, soft sculptures, films and performance pieces, while also staging anti-war \u201chappenings\u201d during the 1960s. Her work received renewed international attention decades later, with her mirrored rooms and brightly coloured sculptures attracting enormous audiences.<\/p>\n
After returning to Japan in the 1970s, Kusama voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo in 1977. She continued living there while travelling to her nearby studio to work.<\/p>\n
Her art also became the subject of several major Australian exhibitions across the country.<\/p>\n
A sprawling retrospective at Melbourne\u2019s National Gallery of Victoria ran from December 2024 until April 2025 and attracted 570,537 visitors, becoming the most attended ticketed exhibition in the gallery\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Brisbane\u2019s Gallery of Modern Art hosted Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow from November 2017 until February 2018, while Sydney\u2019s Museum of Contemporary Art staged Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still see hallucinations even now,\u201d Kusama said in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cDots come flying everywhere \u2013 on my dress, the floor, things I\u2019m carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them.\u201d<\/p>\n