'Polka Dot Pumpkin' Artist Yayoi Kusama Passes Away at 97

Died of multiple organ failure at a hospital
Famous for polka dot and net-patterned works

It was belatedly revealed that Japanese sculptor and installation artist Yayoi Kusama, famous for her pumpkin works inspired by polka dot motifs, passed away on August 14. She was 97 years old.

According to Japanese media including Kyodo News on the 27th, Kusama died of multiple organ failure at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. AP Yonhap News

Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, in 1929, Kusama was the youngest daughter in a wealthy family that cultivated plant seeds. She showed an interest in art from an early age, but her parents did not want her to become an artist. In particular, Kusama’s mother wanted her to live the life of a traditional housewife and opposed her artistic pursuits, going so far as to tear up Kusama’s drawings in strong protest.

Kusama began experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations starting at the age of 10, but at the time, these symptoms were not recognized as mental illness. Later, she explained that her mother's harshness and her father's infidelity deeply scarred her, describing her work as “an expression of my life, especially my mental illness.”

Defying her parents’ opposition, she entered the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. However, she became disillusioned with the Japanese education system, dropped out, and continued her creative work alone. In 1955, Kusama encountered the work of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe in a book she found by chance at a used bookstore and sent a letter and her own artworks, asking how she might work as an artist in the United States. O’Keeffe replied, encouraging Kusama to come to New York and show her work to those interested, so in 1957, Kusama moved to the United States.

She worked in New York until returning to Japan in 1973. There, she garnered attention through street performances such as painting polka dots on naked men and women, earning her the nickname “Queen of Happenings.” However, after continued financial hardship, a breakup with her lover, and ongoing psychological distress, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 and voluntarily admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo.

Yayoi Kusama's work "Pumpkin"

Kusama transformed her hallucinations into art, expressing them through her signature countless dots and net patterns. Notably, her large pumpkin objects adorned with vibrant polka dot designs became her representative works. In 1993, she was the sole representative of the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 2011 and 2012, major retrospective exhibitions were held at renowned museums in Europe and the United States. Her collaboration with the brand Louis Vuitton also attracted much attention. In 2017, the “Yayoi Kusama Museum” opened in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where she continued to release new works until her later years. Kusama was honored with the Order of Arts and Letters from France in 2003, was named a Person of Cultural Merit in Japan in 2009, and received the Order of Culture of Japan in 2016.

Kusama’s works are traded at art auctions for amounts ranging from several billion to ten billion won. In 2022, her net painting from the 1960s sold for 10.5 million dollars (about 14.5 billion won) at a Phillips auction in New York, becoming the most expensive work ever sold by a living female artist at that time.

On the 27th, her studio announced her passing, stating, “Until her last day, she did not put down her brush, continually pursuing ‘eternal love’ and ‘eternal soul.’ We are determined to honor Kusama’s wishes and continue to share hope and strength for the future with people around the world through art.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.