Renowned Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, who rose to international fame with her polka-dot-covered paintings, mirrored installations and phallic sculptures, has died of multiple organ failure. She was 97. Her studio announced that she passed away in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August.
“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,” the statement read. “She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.”
The world’s top-selling living female artist, Yayoi Kusama spent four decades living voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital. During a traumatic childhood, her abusive mother sent her to spy on her father’s extramarital affairs. The polka-dot queen dealt with hallucinations by drawing repetitive patterns. She accused her friend Andy Warhol of plagiarism and once wrote an open letter to President Nixon offering to have sex with him if he would stop the Vietnam War.
Updated On August 27, 2026
