Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who was known for her signature polka dots, has died. An announcement made on her official website by her company on Thursday said that she died on 14 August. It did not give a cause of death.
Kusama was one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists. She was widely exhibited around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Repetitive motifs were her trademark, sometimes resembling netting, swirls or worms – but most often dots.
They danced proudly on her canvases or appeared as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations. Frustrated with the confining nature of Japanese society, Kusama left for New York at 27, where she quickly made a name for herself with her paintings, inspired by hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers she had seen since childhood. She also wrote, took part in anti-war activities during the 1960s, and reportedly influenced artists such as Andy Warhol.
Kusama, who was candid about her mental health struggles, said that New York gave her neuroses. Around 1977, a few years after returning to Japan, she voluntarily entered a mental hospital and lived there for decades, being driven to her nearby studio each morning. "I still see hallucinations even now," Kusama said in 2017.
"Dots come flying everywhere – on my dress, the floor, things I'm carrying, throughout the house, the ceiling. And I paint them." Kusama described polka dots as “fabulous” in a 2012 interview with the Associated Pres. In her later years, Kusama enjoyed fame.
She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing. In 2008, Christie’s auctioned her work for $5.8 million, and in 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.
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