Artist Yayoi Kusama speaks to journalists at her Tokyo studio in 2017. | REUTERS
Aug 27, 2026
For Yayoi Kusama, art was more than a calling — it was a reason to live.
“If it hadn’t been for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago,” Kusama wrote in her essay “Why do I create art?”
Known for her dizzying dot motifs, pumpkins and mirrored installations that offered a glimpse into the mind of someone who voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for half of her life, Kusama created an extraordinary body of work over a career spanning more than seven decades that made her one of the world’s most recognizable artists. She died Aug. 14 at a Tokyo hospital, according to a statement posted Thursday on her website. She was 97.
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