Yayoi Kusama, ‘Polka-Dot Pumpkin’ Artist, Dies at 97
Creatrip Team
23 days ago
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist famed for polka dots, pumpkins, and immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, died at 97 in Tokyo. Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, she experienced hallucinations from childhood in which flowers and plants spoke to her—an influence she transformed into art. After moving to New York in 1958, Kusama became part of the avant-garde scene, creating signature works like Infinity Nets and Accumulation (sculptures that attach fabric phallic shapes to objects). She protested the Vietnam War but faced discrimination and exploitation in the male-dominated art world, and later returned to Japan, voluntarily entering a psychiatric hospital in 1977 where she lived and continued to work. Her career revived in the 1990s, highlighted by the 1993 Venice Biennale and later the global popularity of her Infinity Mirror Rooms via social media. Controversy arose over racially insensitive passages in a 2002 autobiography, for which she apologized in 2023. Kusama set auction records in 2014 when White No.28 sold for $7.1 million. Throughout her life she said she made art for everyone’s healing.
