Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama poses for a photograph inside her Infinity Mirrored Room installation titled "The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" during a media preview of her new exhibition at the David Zwirner gallery in New York November 7, 2013.
Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s most celebrated and best-selling artists, has died age 97, according to a statement on the artist’s official website.
Kusama was, by the time of her death, one of contemporary art’s most popular and commercially successful figures. Her famous “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” large-scale installations that immersed audiences in endlessly repeating reflections of color and light, attracted millions of gallery visitors.
Her distinctive pumpkin sculptures and polka-dot paintings, meanwhile, generated millions of dollars in auction revenue.
But the global recognition of her work in later years was made all the more remarkable by the difficulties she overcame to achieve it, namely childhood trauma, mental illness and years of relative obscurity.
#YayoiKusama2026jzebraa
Yayoi Kusama, Thanks for the Beautiful Art and Inspirations from Her distinctive pumpkin sculptures, polka-dot paintings to the mirror ball room -XOXO jzebraa
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Yayoi Kusama was a visionary Japanese contemporary artist globally celebrated for her immersive avant-garde installations, obsessive repeating patterns, and iconic polka dots. A pioneering figure who bridged Pop art, minimalism, and feminist art, she was acknowledged as the world’s top-selling female artist. Following a legendary seven-decade career that transformed the global landscape of contemporary art, Kusama passed away on August 14, 2026, at the age of 97 in Tokyo. [1, 2, 3]
Life and Career
- Early Visuals: Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, she experienced vivid hallucinations from childhood—vvisions of dense polka dots and nets that she began drawing as a therapeutic release. [1, 2]
- The New York Avant-Garde: Moving to New York City in 1958, she became a fixture of the 1960s avant-garde scene alongside peers like Andy Warhol. She staged provocative, anti-war performance art "happenings" where she painted polka dots on naked participants. [1, 2, 3]
- Institutional Living: Overwhelmed by mental health challenges, she returned to Japan in 1973. In 1977, she voluntarily checked herself into a Tokyo psychiatric facility. She resided there for the rest of her life, walking daily to her nearby studio to paint and sculpt. [1, 2, 3, 4]
- Late-Career Phenomenon: In her later decades, Kusama achieved unparalleled global superstar status. Her immersive mirror installations became an internet-era sensation, attracting hours-long lines at museums around the world. [1, 2]
Signature Artworks and Themes
- Infinity Mirror Rooms: Immersive, kaleidoscopic chambers lined with mirrors and shifting LED lights (like The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away) that simulate an endless, cosmic expanse.
- Polka Dots & Self-Obliteration: For Kusama, polka dots represented a way to lose one's individual identity and merge completely with the universe, a philosophical concept she called "self-obliteration".
- Spotted Pumpkins: Oversized, brightly colored pumpkin sculptures adorned with her signature dot patterns. Her pumpkins have been installed in high-profile cultural districts and landscapes worldwide, including the famous yellow pumpkin on Japan’s Naoshima island.
- High-Fashion Collaborations: Her unmistakable visual language expanded well beyond gallery walls, resulting in massive, high-profile design partnerships with luxury fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
If you want to explore more about her legacy, I can:
- Provide details on her record-breaking art auction sales
- Explain the story behind her famous Naoshima Island pumpkin
- Share more about her literary work and poetry
From the 1950s to the 2020s, Kusama produced vivid paintings, sculptures and vast installations that often drew on her experience of hallucinations
Kusama’s work The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe, at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany in 2026. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
As well as being a sculptor and painter, Kusama put on numerous performance pieces throughout the hippy era that saw her name attached to scandal. She staged “body festivals” with naked performers painted in polka dots and once wrote to US president Richard Nixon offering to sleep with him in return for an end to the Vietnam war. News of such events appalled her conservative family back home.
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