--- title: "Yayoi Kusama: A life in polka dots, pumpkins and infinity" description: "Yayoi Kusama, the pioneering Japanese artist known for her iconic polka dots, pumpkins and immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, leaves a remarkable legacy spanning more than seven decades. Her distinctive work transformed contemporary art and made her one of the world’s most recognisable artists. Kusama died this month at the age of 97." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "IN PICTURES" author: "Daily Maverick Photo Team" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/photo-team/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-27-yayoi-kusama-a-life-in-polka-dots-pumpkins-and-infinity/" published: "2026-08-27T10:44:47" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 621 --- # Yayoi Kusama: A life in polka dots, pumpkins and infinity > Yayoi Kusama, the pioneering Japanese artist known for her iconic polka dots, pumpkins and immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, leaves a remarkable legacy spanning more than seven decades. Her distinctive work transformed contemporary art and made her one of the world’s most recognisable artists. Kusama died this month at the age of 97. By Daily Maverick Photo Team · Published 27 August 2026, 12:44 SAST ## Key points - Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist who turned polka dots and pumpkins into a global visual language, has died this month aged 97 — closing a seven‑decade career that reshaped contemporary art. - She pioneered immersive spectacle — from provocative 1960s performances (including body‑painting) to her famed Infinity Mirror Rooms — making participation and repetition central to modern installation art. - Kusama became a blockbuster cultural brand: Tate Modern retrospectives, major shows at NGV and National Gallery Singapore, record‑crowd immersive environments (Manchester 2023) and high‑profile collaborations with Louis Vuitton. - Her singular obsession—endlessly repeated dots, pumpkins and mirrored infinities—bridged avant‑garde practice, fashion and mass audiences, ensuring her work remained omnipresent and commercially influential to the end. ## Content ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/6ZL_zWt1NJlLrLoGmL1r8oK2fCg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-3068088b_254633.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama with two of her ‘works of art’ in June 1968. She painted naked bodies in an attempt to make them more beautiful at an exhibition in Utrecht. One man is painted all over, while another refused to remove his trousers. (Photo: Keystone Features / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/TLC92WfJ6ST8a6qJwA9rAGmGATY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-2946114_539676.jpg) *Visitors walk through the ‘Kusamatrix’ exhibition by artist Kusama Yayoi at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo on 8 February 2004. Polka dot patterns were her trademark. (Photo: Junko Kimura / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/sHSG7ZRYYlcsXGl-a8t5wFKLizY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-148126493_982290.jpg) *The Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama Collaboration unveiling in New York City on 10 July 2012. (Photo: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/CYJwAx98gWuZnfOYC8UxxEOqqI8=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-1456053382_500433.jpg) *A Yayoi Kusama sculpture on Louis Vuitton’s Champs Elysees store in Paris on 12 January 2023. That year the French fashion house launched a second collaboration with Kusama, following the first in 2012. (Photo: Edward Berthelot / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/JbQJf7VNxvaLzG1yv1t28c6l8OI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/LM1E827103401_116137.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama in front of a detail from her artwork, Love arrives at the Earth Carrying with it a Tale of the Cosmos, at the Tate Modern gallery in London on 7 February 2012. The retrospective exhibition of her work ended on 5 June that year. (Photo: Reuters / Luke MacGregor)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/94pdDEajHRiwIAMVETCsMRf1kJg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/AFP_20130919_1KUSAMA20130918114_v1_HighRes_PoldaDotWithPmAbe_247848.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama during a courtesy call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on 18 September 2013. (Photo: Tsuyoshi Yoshioka / The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/k-W_wPJHz3lsXfb8hTprVA1Swts=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-187291283_193751.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama attends the preview of her I Who Have Arrived In Heaven exhibition at the David Zwirner Art Gallery in New York City on 7 November 2013. (Photo: Andrew Toth / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/_Sq1e-E8BYe7-lz2mfAVJj5al-Y=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-531682858_857329.jpg) *A wax figure of Yayoi Kusama at Madame Tussauds Tokyo on 16 May 2016. (Photo: Takashi Aoyama / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/BXYTCrjEOKaZOw7QnY2wDJ-3kQ4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-692888896_572201.jpg) *An Yayoi Kusama exhibit titled The Spirits of Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens at the National Gallery Singapore on 6 June 2017. The Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow exhibition featured more than 120 works spanning 70 years. (Photo: Suhaimi Abdullah / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/S1RLLCj6CV-vKU0_4wsP9kaK6hU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/RC1C91FA74E0_692072.jpg) *Japanese avant garde artist Yayoi Kusama speaks to journalists at her studio in Tokyo on 26 September 2017. (Photo: Reuters / Toru Hanai)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/R8NNhwbT_A_vITlr23yK6mTzrwc=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/RC1BBC57C4A0_334609.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama works in her studio in Tokyo on 26 September 2017. (Photo: Reuters / Toru Hanai)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/CCdwSX6bpXpVTOhbzoLBZCAG92M=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-1471614616_732903.jpg) *The sculpture of Yayoi Kusama between the headquarters of the Maison Louis Vuitton and the Samaritaine department store in Paris on 6 March 2023. (Photo: Thierry Chesnot / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/To7Hvj6lg4mRPAfICENSFakxRvk=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/RC2SVY9EAOR1_528185.jpg) *Shoppers walk past a window display promoting a collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton in Harrods department store in London on 22 January 2023. (Photo: Reuters / Toby Melville)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/aurMXAjPKAinCk6bmPiL0ARtK1w=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-1263356254_703223.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition, You, Me and the Balloons, at Aviva Studios in Manchester, England, on 29 June 2023, was her largest immersive environment yet. Conceived for Factory International, it celebrated three decades of the pioneering Japanese artist’s inflatable artworks. (Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/3RxSIA8jTww3WvxPUF7ETc3TbyI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-2189683242_753610.jpg) *From left: Wayne Crothers, senior curator of Asian art at NGV, Hidenori Ota, founder of OTA Fine Arts, and Takako Fujibayashi from Yayoi Kusama Studio at the preview of Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, on 13 December 2024. (Photo: Graham Denholm / Getty Images for NGV)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/SOWlCs22tZpTrDbc3DM4FKf7gY4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/GettyImages-2189683019_859445.jpg) *A visitor at the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on 13 December 2024. (Photo: Graham Denholm / Getty Images for NGV)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/tl8T8bngBmh_OA6Mn13tqntOooM=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/AFP_20230620_33KJ648_v1_HighRes_FashionFranceMenLouisVuitton_372165.jpg) *Yayoi Kusama towers over guests arriving on the Pont Neuf for the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring-Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on 20 June 2023. (Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP)* ![Photo Essay-Yayoi Kusam](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/0tJQs5iBK_sdESXiG3wkjrgxiXQ=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/AFP_20260827_C6L82WH_v1_HighRes_FilesJapanArtKusama_114006.jpg) *A video projection of Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict by Yayoi Kusama during the media preview of her exhibition titled I would overcome death and go on living at Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo on 16 October 2024. (Photo: Philip Fong / AFP)*