Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist who turned polka dots and mirror-filled rooms into a global phenomenon, has died aged 97. Her studio confirmed she died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14.
The polka dot queen’s extraordinary life
Born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929, Kusama grew up drawing to cope with hallucinations in which the flowers and fabrics around her seemed to swarm and talk. That lifelong compulsion to paint what she saw carried her from a conservative childhood to the center of the New York avant-garde scene, which she joined in 1958.
Her “infinity net” paintings, vast fields of dots stretching across canvas, earned her early recognition. In 2014, her White No 28 sold for $7.1 million, then a record for a living female artist.
Infinity rooms and the selfie era
Kusama found her largest audience late in life through her immersive infinity mirror room installations, mirrored spaces of lights, pumpkins, and glowing color that became irresistible Instagram material. Fans around the world queued for hours for a brief glimpse inside. She received retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998, London’s Tate Modern in 2012, and Washington DC’s Hirshhorn Museum in 2017.
A life of art and defiance
Kusama was known as much for her rebellious streak as for her art. In 1966 she staged the infamous Narcissus Garden at the Venice Biennale, selling 1,500 mirrored balls for $2 each. From 1977 she chose to live permanently in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, working daily in a nearby studio, an arrangement she kept for decades while continuing to create.
Her studio said she “continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush.” Kusama is remembered as an outsider who refused the art establishment’s approval, once saying: “It feels good to be an outsider.”
Kusama’s impact on Filipino art lovers
Kusama’s dot-covered works and sensory rooms made her a favorite among Filipino museum-goers, part of the same immersive-art wave that keeps drawing crowds to local galleries. For more on how the art world is honoring creative legends, read about the Larry Alcala centennial exhibition, or revisit how museum retrospectives are drawing new audiences in Manila.
