Yayoi Kusama, artist known for her obsessive use of polka dots, dies at 97

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist known for her obsessive use of polka dots, has died. She was 97.

Her studio announced her death in a statement to its website late Wednesday.

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” her studio said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

David Zwirner, who represented the artist since 2013 after she left Gagosian Gallery, confirmed her death in an emailed news release and said she died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14.

“It’s been one of the great privileges of my professional life to have been able to represent Yayoi Kusama’s extraordinary art for the last fifteen years,” Zwirner said.

Zwirner said Kusama last visited New York in 2013 when the artist opened the first of six solo exhibitions of her work with the gallery. Each of those shows broke the gallery's attendance records, he said.

“Her steadfast message of love and peace has now reached millions of admirers around the globe. At the time of her passing, Kusama was, without a doubt, the most famous living artist in the world,” Zwirner said.

Zwirner said he visited Kusama’s career retrospective at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, which included more than 300 works from her childhood drawings to the present day.

“Shortly after my visit to the Museum Ludwig, they announced that this exhibition had become the most successful in its history,” Zwirner said. “Kusama must have been pleased to read this. I will miss her terribly.”

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