Yayoi Kusama Dies at 97, Leaving Art Shaped by Hallucinations and Mental Illness
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 27
Yayoi Kusama Dies at 97, Leaving Art Shaped by Hallucinations and Mental Illness
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 27
Summary
Yayoi Kusama died at 97 after building one of contemporary art’s most distinctive bodies of work from the hallucinations she said began at age 10.
In a 2012 interview, Kusama said creating art was the only way she found to relieve pain, anxiety and fear, turning recurring dots, flowers and “self-obliteration” into her signature visual language.
Her influence stretched from New York’s avant-garde and pop art to blockbuster museum shows; Tate Modern extended her Infinity Mirror Rooms exhibition by a full year in 2022 because of demand.
Kusama was unusually open about mental illness, voluntarily entering a Tokyo psychiatric facility in the 1970s while continuing to work nearby, and her legacy now sits within a broader art world more attentive to neurodivergence and disability.