Japan’s ‘polka dot queen’, avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, dies at 97

TOKYO – Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese avant-garde artist known worldwide for her repetitive imagery of polka dots, pumpkin sculptures and mesmerising mirror-based installations, died of multiple organ failure at a Tokyo hospital on Aug 14, a foundation set up to support her said on Aug 27.

She was 97.

With a career that spanned more than 60 years, the artist was a trailblazer in contemporary art. Kusama was also one of the most popular and commercially successful artists, with her shows drawing big crowds around the world and her paintings being auctioned off for millions of dollars apiece.

Singapore- and Manila-based art collector Kim Camacho, who has one of the most significant private collections of Kusama, with over 100 of her works, told The Straits Times that the artist’s death was “a loss for mankind”.

She said: “She was a great proponent of love and beauty so badly needed at a time of hatred and wars, and a superstar contemporary artist whose talent and body of work are second to none. We will miss her and the world will miss her.”

Singaporean Mae Anderson, chairperson of non-profit organisation Art Outreach Singapore, said: “Yayoi Kusama’s life and work are difficult to separate. There is exuberance, wit and visual seduction in the work, but also a much harder story beneath it, of rejection, psychological struggle and a woman who spent decades insisting on the legitimacy of her own vision.

“What I find most compelling is that she never diluted that vision in pursuit of popularity. She kept making, repeating and extending her language with extraordinary conviction until the world eventually caught up with her. That history gives the work a depth that sits far beyond its immediate visual appeal.”

Ota Fine Arts gallerist Hidenori Ota, Kusama’s long-time main art dealer, said he feels a “profound sadness”.

A key figure in propelling Kusama to global stardom, he was one of the few art world people in regular communication with the artist and regularly showed her work at his Singapore-based gallery in Gillman Barracks.

In a statement, Ota said: “I first had the privilege of working with Kusama in 1988 while at Fuji TV Gallery. Following my independence in 1991, and through to the present day, I was fortunate to continue our longstanding relationship as her representative. To have helped bring her unparalleled artistic vision to audiences around the world has been an irreplaceable part of my life.”

Ota said a private funeral service was held for Kusama’s close relatives, in accordance with the wishes of her family. He added that a memorial gathering is scheduled for a later date, with details to be announced.

The artist’s vivid palette of colours and immersive installations won her new generations of fans in the social media age. Her 2017 show Life Is The Heart Of A Rainbow at the National Gallery Singapore broke attendance records, drawing more than 235,000 visitors over three months.

Born in Nagano prefecture, central Japan, Kusama was the youngest daughter in a wealthy family that ran a plant nursery. She began experiencing hallucinations at a young age, which she later depicted in her works as a means to overcome fears.

She wrote in her 2002 autobiography Infinity Net: The Autobiography Of Yayoi Kusama: “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.”

After studying painting at an art school in Kyoto, she moved to the United States in 1957. She had written to American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who encouraged the budding artist.

Eventually settling in New York, Kusama made large paintings and soft sculptures and held body painting festivals and fashion shows, some of them in protest against the Vietnam War and other social issues.

She made soft sculptures of phalluses, gluing them onto furniture and walls. Her Accumulation series was featured in a group show at New York’s Green Gallery in 1962 alongside works by Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. This marked her as a pioneer in the avant-garde art movements of pop and minimalism.

She exploited her image as a petite Asian woman in the art world, creating performance works that aligned with the then burgeoning hippie movement.

She returned to Japan in 1973, voluntarily admitting herself into a Tokyo psychiatric hospital where she lived and worked for the rest of her life.

In recent years, her popular Infinity Mirror Rooms, an immersive installation series enabling visitors to experience endless reflections of themselves, attracted global popularity on Instagram. Her iconic pumpkin sculptures, including a famed display at Japan’s Naoshima Island, are Instagram fodder.

In 2017, Kusama opened her own museum dedicated to her works in a neighbourhood close to her home in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward.

Kusama, often pictured wearing a coloured wig and flashy clothes with her signature polka dot pattern, was named in Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2016.

She is one of the few international contemporary artists to become a brand unto herself, and she even named her own crossover appeal as “Kusamania”.

She was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by the Japanese government in 2006. KYODO NEWS