Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, famous for her colorful sculptures and lunar-covered installations, has passed away at the age of 97.
Kusama, who lived voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital for decades, was known for her bright red hairstyle and her gigantic and extravagant creations.
Her exhibitions attracted large crowds around the world, and her vibrant works reached some of the highest prices ever paid by a female artist.
A statement from his company announced: “Thro an extraordinary life entirely devoted to artistic creation, Kusama developed an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist, whose creative practice encompassed the visual arts, performance, narrative and poetry.”
Kusama died in a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, according to the statement.
In a statement, the company said: “He continued painting until his last days without ever releasing the brush and continued exploring eternal love and eternal soul.”
“We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world,” he added.
Kusama became one of the most recognized artists in the world and a global cultural icon when she was between 80 and 90 years old, after being virtually ignored for decades.
Although not well received in New York's men-dominated artistic atmosphere in the 1960s, Kusama caused turmoil with her exhibitions of phalac sculptures, including a sofa with hundreds of cloth bullets, and with her frequent exhibitions of nakedness.
In 1965, his work “Sales of Infinite Mirrors,” in which mirrors and lights create seemingly endless spaces, attracted millions of visitors. Later, his works of moons and crabs became very coveted.
However, she felt distressed when her ideas were copied by or “inspired” by her male contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Lucas Samaras, whose works were exhibited in more prestigious galleries.
After spending years watching male artists get recognition for their work, she returned to her home in Japan, feeling overwhelmed and distressed.
He entered a psychiatric center to receive treatment for mental illness, where he lived and worked the rest of his life.
Miraculously, he managed to find a hospital where doctors were interested in art therapy and interned.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, his work was characterized by series of unusually dark collages in which he adopted images of the cycles of natural life.
Kusama became Japan's first solo artist to represent the country at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Seventy-seven years earlier, he had appeared without invitation and had placed 1,500 mirror balls on the floor.
The outstanding success of the exhibition caused a huge transformation in the way it was received both in Japan and abroad.
In 2001, he received the Asahi Award, which recognizes outstanding cultural, academic and artistic contributions to Japan.
One of her paintings reached a price of around $10.5 million at an auction in 2022, making her works some of the most expensive in the world for a female artist.
His work was later exhibited in important museums and collaborated with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton.
As a child, Kusama experienced brass and flash hallucinations, and later used his art as a vehicle for others to understand his worldview.
“One day, after seeing a mantle with a stamp of red flowers on a desk, I saw the same stamp of red flowers across the roof, the windows and the columns. It filled the room and covered my body,” he wrote in his autobiography.
Kusama was born in 1929 in the rural town of Matsumoto, in the central region of Nagano, Japan.
His parents did not support his initial decision to study painting in Kyoto.
Later, he was told that his art caused great shame to his conservative family.
Some sectors of the American press also criticized what they considered an insatiable dedication to advertising, either in their peace-promoting messages or in their criticisms of the traditional artistic world.
The world, along with his native Japan, radically changed his perception of Kusama in the final stage of his life.
Social media has driven a sudden rise in interest in recent years, and his museum’s striking flower shapes and shiny steel spheres have become a desirable backdrop for selfies and poses.
Among her numerous motifs, the calf has become an iconic element of her work.For her, this vegetable represented comfort and nostalgia.
He once said in an interview, “The cockroaches talk to me.”
“They convey a sense of stability and give me tranquility,” he added.
In his hometown of Naoshima, visitors arriving by ferry are welcomed by his open-air sculpture “Red Swan”, covered with striking black lunar rays.
*This article was originally written in English and we use an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC reporter reviewed the text before it was published. Find out more about how we use it.
