Yayoi Kusama, high priestess of polka dots, has died

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, the world’s most recognizable polka‑dot icon, died in Tokyo on August 14 at the age of 97. A statement from her representative, David Zwirner, said the cause of death was multiple organ failure. Kusama’s passing marks the end of a career that spanned more than six decades and left an indelible mark on contemporary art.

Kusama’s work is famed for its relentless repetition of dots, bright colors, and immersive “Infinity Rooms,” which use mirrored walls and flickering lights to create the illusion of endless space. She described her art as a means of survival, writing in her autobiography, “Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos.” Her pieces ranged from giant orange and black pumpkins studded with dots to fluorescent canvases she called infinity net paintings. The artist’s obsession with patterns was a visual expression of the hallucinations she experienced from a young age.

Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, central Japan, Kusama grew up in a family that ran a seed nursery. During World War II she and other children worked in a parachute factory. In her early years she drew her visions in sketchbooks to ease the shock and fear of her episodes, although her mother often confiscated her art supplies. A turning point came when she discovered a book of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings at a secondhand shop and wrote to the American artist for advice. O’Keeffe replied that it was difficult to make a living as an artist in the U.S. but encouraged Kusama to travel and exhibit her work.

In the late 1950s, Kusama moved to New York and became a prominent figure in the city’s avant‑garde scene. She staged public “happenings” during the Vietnam War, painting polka dots on the naked bodies of protestors and distributing an open letter to President Richard Nixon that read, “As we soar through the heavens, we’ll paint each other with polka dots, lose our egos in timeless eternity, and finally discover the naked truth: You can’t eradicate violence by using more violence.” The letter was a provocative critique of war that reflected Kusama’s willingness to confront political issues through performance.

Richard Castellane, who represented Kusama in the 1960s, recalled that her work shocked audiences. “She shocked the living daylights out of people,” he told NPR in 2017. He described an Infinity Room filled with phalluses and another that featured blinking lights set to a Beatles soundtrack, noting how the lights “bounced from mirror to mirror to mirror to mirror.” Castellane said viewers were “mesmerized and rather overwhelmed,” and that the experience was “something very new.”

Kusama faced challenges as a female artist in a male‑dominated field. Curator Mika Yoshitake told NPR, “It was tough to get the attention in a very male‑dominated art world at the time. She also was exoticised — and she didn’t hide it, either. She was wearing kimonos and presented this kind of exotic, oriental figure.” Despite her success, she struggled financially and continued to suffer from panic attacks. In the early 1970s she returned to Japan and checked herself into a psychiatric hospital where she lived for the rest of her life, continuing to produce work from a studio across the street.

Kusama’s influence expanded worldwide. Major institutions such as the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and the Tate in London have exhibited her work. In 2017 the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo. Her designs appear on consumer products, including phone cases, lipstick, and luxury fashion items. She remained a prolific creator into the 2000s, stating in her autobiography, “If, a hundred years from now, someone were to see my art and think ‘Kusama did some really good work,’ I would be satisfied. Art, for me, is a creed.”

In 2023, Kusama apologized for depictions of Black people in her autobiography, Infinity Net, in response to criticism. She died a few weeks later, leaving behind a legacy that challenged perceptions of art, identity, and the human mind.