Yayoi Kusama, avant-garde Japanese artist, dies aged 97

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist who reached global fame for her work in sculptures and installations, has died. She was 97.

Kusama’s studio announced her death in an official statement on their website on Thursday, but noted she passed away in a Tokyo hospital on August 14.

“It is with profound sorrow that the passing of Yayoi Kusama at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, at the age of 97,” the statement read.

“Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry.

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.

“We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

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Globally, Kusama was instantly recognisable by her signature bright orange bob and was renowned for her immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, polka-dot patterns and bright pumpkin sculptures.

Kusama, who lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, turned her lifelong obsessive neurosis and visual hallucinations into a groundbreaking artistic career.

Her art featured in major Australian exhibitions including the National Gallery of Victoria in 2024, where attendance broke records, as well as at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art in 2018 and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009.

Frustrated by the strictness of Japanese society, Kusama left for New York at 27. There she fast made a name for herself with her paintings inspired by hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers.

Kusama was open about her mental health struggles, revealing living in New York gave her neurosis.

She moved back to Japan and in 1977, a few years after her return, she voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital where she lived decades and was driven to her nearby studio every morning.

Kusama explained that she fought pain and anxiety every day and that creating art was a relief.

“I ​still ⁠see hallucinations even now,” Kusama said in a 2017 interview with The Broad.

“Dots come flying everywhere – on my dress, the floor, ⁠things ​I’m carrying, throughout the house, ​the ceiling. And I paint them.”