Japan's 'polka dot queen' artist Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97

Yayoi Kusama, the acclaimed Japanese avant-garde artist who transformed her hallucinations into works that ranged from vibrant dot-covered paintings and pumpkin sculptures to infinity mirror room installations, has died at the age of 97.

Diminutive and known for sporting a scarlet bob wig later in life, Kusama was candid about her mental health struggles, saying she experienced visions and hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers since childhood.

"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."

The "polka dot queen" channelled hallucinations and battles with mental health into vibrant art featuring her trademark dots, nets and infinity motifs over a career spanning decades and continents.

"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," a statement said, announcing her death on August 14.

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

Born in 1929 to a wealthy and conservative family -- by her account with a domineering mother and philandering father -- Kusama began producing her unique signature art aged 10.

"One day, after seeing a tablecloth with a red flower pattern on a desk, I saw the same red flower pattern all over the ceiling, windows and pillars. It filled the room, and covered my body," she wrote in her autobiography.

After studying art in Japan, Kusama moved to the United States in the late 1950s, and -- encouraged and helped by Georgia O'Keeffe -- quickly made a splash in New York's avant-garde scene.

Despite facing discrimination as not just Japanese but also a woman in a male-dominated scene, she won fame for bold, big paintings and provocative 1960s "happenings" featuring body painting and polka dots.

She also launched a fashion line, established a "Church of Self-Obliteration" and styled herself the "High Priestess of Polka Dots" to officiate at a gay wedding.

Returning to Japan in the 1970s, Kusama checked herself into a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, where she lived -- and worked -- for the rest of her life.

A life-like robot of artist Yayoi Kusama paining a window stands at the Louis Vuitton store on Fifth Avenue in New York City on January 13, 2023. (AFP)

- 'Self-obliteration' -

Instantly recognisable in her bright red wig and bold spotted outfits, her fame enjoyed a renaissance from the 1980s.

Her infinity rooms, pumpkin sculptures -- including one on Japan's "art island" Naoshima -- and immersive installations still attract crowds and have sold for millions of dollars.

Ai Kono, 50, was on her way from Yokohama to the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo with her 10-year-old daughter Ran on Thursday when they heard the artist had passed away.

"She lived a long and fulfilling life. But I was shocked to see the news. I came because I wanted to show my daughter her unique polka dots and use of colour," Kono told AFP outside the museum.

"As a woman, she was a person of persistence."

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, called Kusama a "true visionary who showed us the power of boundless imagination".

"Yayoi Kusama's creativity pushed the art world forward and left behind a brighter, more vibrant world for us all," Cook said on X.

Kusama's company said she died in hospital in Tokyo.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama waves at a photo session during a press preview of her exhibition titled 'My Eternal Soul' at the National Art Center in Tokyo on February 21, 2017. (AFP)

(Reuters and AFP)