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

Kusama turned her hallucinations into work that ranged from dot-covered paintings and pumpkin sculptures to infinity mirror room installations.Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist known for her polka-dot paintings, pumpkin sculptures and immersive “Infinity Mirror Rooms”, has died at the age of 97.Announcing her death on Thursday, Kusama’s company said she died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, on August 14 .Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Japanese artist wins new audienceslist 2 of 3Japan: ‘Queen of polka dots’ museum openslist 3 of 3Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, giant of resistance art, dies aged 79end of list“Until the very end, she never put down her paintbrush, continuing to explore eternal love and the soul,” the statement said.Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama had a troubled childhood marked by family conflict. She began drawing as a child, channelling the hallucinations she experienced into vibrant art featuring dots, nets and infinity motifs.“I still see hallucinations even now,” she told reporters in 2017. “Dots come flying everywhere – on my dress, the floor, things I’m carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them.”After studying art in Japan, Kusama moved to the United States in the late 1950s, and quickly made a splash in New York’s avant-garde scene, exhibiting net paintings, soft sculptures and creating body painting events to protest against the Vietnam War.She returned to Japan in 1973 and, four years later, voluntarily checked into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she remained for the rest of her life, being driven each morning to a small studio nearby to continue working.Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations.