Yayoi Kusama, Queen of Polka Dots, Dies at 97

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist whose polka dots, pumpkins and Infinity Mirror Rooms became some of contemporary art's most recognizable images, has died at 97.

The Yayoi Kusama Museum in Japan announced today that Kusama, its founder, died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14.

Born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Kusama became one of the world's most influential avant-garde artists. She began experiencing visual and auditory disorders in childhood, seeing the world covered in dots and nets, imagery that later became central to her art.

Despite family opposition, she pursued painting and moved to New York in 1957 in search of freer artistic expression. There, she drew attention in avant-garde circles with her Infinity Net paintings, soft sculptures and performances.

Her early works included the 1960 oil painting Yellow Infinity Net and the 1965 installation Infinity Mirror Room -- Phalli's Field. In 1966, she presented Narcissus Garden at the Venice Biennale, an installation of 1,500 mirrored spheres that she sold for US$2 each before organizers stopped the action.

Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 as her mental health problems worsened. In 1977, she voluntarily moved into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and set up a nearby studio, where she kept a strict routine of daytime work and evening returns to the hospital.

She represented Japan in a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale in 1993, cementing her international standing, and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2016.

Shanghai audiences encountered Kusama's work repeatedly in her later years. In 2019, Fosun Foundation Shanghai staged the major solo exhibition All About Love Speaks Forever, showing 42 works including large immersive installations, an Infinity Mirror Room and her signature pumpkin and polka-dot motifs.

The exhibition began on the second floor with the winding corridor Hidden Life, where convex mirrors reflected visitors and the building itself, setting up a journey of self-examination.

From November 12 to 17, 2024, Kusama's largest pumpkin sculpture to date, Pumpkin's Life Singing, Everything Is About Giving People The Greatest Love, made its China debut at Shanghai's North Bund. The nearly 10-meter-tall inflatable black-and-yellow polka-dot pumpkin became a popular photo spot.

Ota Fine Arts Shanghai also presented her newer works under the theme Every Day I Pray For Love, free to the public, while the West Bund Art Center showed her recent creations on several occasions.