Yayoi Kusama, Japan’s ‘queen of polka dots’, dies at 97

What the report says

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has died at age 97, her company said in a statement reported by Al Jazeera. The announcement said she died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14. Kusama was widely known for polka-dot paintings, pumpkin sculptures and her immersive “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” and she had spent decades turning her own hallucinations and recurring visual motifs into art.

Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama began drawing as a child amid a difficult family life. After studying art in Japan, she moved to the United States in the late 1950s and became part of New York’s avant-garde scene, where she worked with net paintings, soft sculptures and performance-style events. She later returned to Japan and, in 1977, entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo voluntarily, continuing to create while living nearby.

Al Jazeera noted that Kusama’s later career brought major international attention, including collaborations with fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton and broad commercial licensing of her imagery. Her exhibitions drew large audiences, and her work sold for high prices at auction. She also received Japan’s Order of Culture in 2016. The report said her influence reached across minimalism, pop art and performance art, making her one of the best-known artists of her generation.