YAYOI KUSAMA, VISIONARY ARTIST OF INFINITY, DIES AGED 97

Yayoi Kusama, the pioneering Japanese artist whose hypnotic polka dots, mirrored rooms and surreal sculptures transformed contemporary art, has died at the age of 97.

Kusama died in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August 2026, according to a statement released by her museum and foundation. Her death was announced on 26 August.

Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama began experiencing vivid hallucinations as a child-visions of dots, flowers and patterns spreading endlessly across her surroundings. Rather than allowing those experiences to consume her, she turned them into a visual language that would eventually become recognised around the world.

She moved to New York in the late 1950s and became a prominent figure in the city’s avant-garde art scene. Her work crossed painting, sculpture, performance, film, fashion and large-scale installation, often exploring repetition, infinity, identity and what she described as “self-obliteration.”

Although Kusama influenced the development of pop art and worked alongside some of its most celebrated male figures, widespread recognition did not come easily. After returning to Japan in the 1970s, she voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo in 1977 and continued working from a nearby studio for the rest of her life.

Decades later, the world finally caught up with her vision. Her celebrated Infinity Mirror Rooms drew enormous audiences, while her pumpkins and signature polka dots appeared in museums, public spaces and collaborations with major fashion houses, including Louis Vuitton.

Behind the colour and spectacle was an artist who spoke candidly about psychological distress and repeatedly described art as the force that kept her alive. She transformed fear, trauma and hallucination into places of wonder—inviting millions of people to step inside the private universe of her mind.

Kusama continued creating until her final days. She leaves behind one of the most distinctive and influential bodies of work in modern art: a seemingly endless universe of dots, reflections and colour that taught the world to see beauty inside repetition-and infinity within the self.

Yayoi Kusama, 1929–2026.