Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who filled the world with polka dots, dead at 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has died at the age of 97, according to a statement published on her official website. She died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14.

Kusama became one of contemporary art’s most popular and commercially successful figures, known worldwide for her “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” polka-dot paintings and iconic pumpkin sculptures.

Her immersive installations, filled with repeating reflections, color and light, attracted millions of visitors around the world, while her sculptures and paintings generated millions of dollars in auction sales.

Born in Japan in 1929, Kusama experienced childhood trauma and vivid hallucinations that later influenced her distinctive artistic style. She moved to the United States in the late 1950s and became an influential figure in New York’s avant-garde art scene.

Despite decades of struggles with mental illness and periods of relative obscurity, Kusama eventually achieved global recognition as one of the defining artists of contemporary art.