Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama died at the age of 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusamadiedat the age of 97, according to a publication on her website this Thursday , known for cultivating brightly colored polka dots and designs with repetitive patterns.

Kusama died on August 14at a hospital in Tokyo, according to the publication, but for the time being no information has been provided on the causes of his death.

Kusama continued to paint until his last days, never leaving his brush, and "continued to investigate eternal love and the immortal soul," the text says.

Japanese was a key figure in psychedelia and one of the most important artists of the last century. He exhibited his works in museums around the world and received several awards, including the Order of the Arts and Letters and Culture ofJapan, one of the highest civil honours granted by the imperial family of Japan.

She was also thefirst woman to receive the Praemium Imperiale Award from the Japanese Art Association, one of the most prestigious art awards in the world, in 2006.

In addition to art and literature, in 2012 he designed the exterior of Louis Vuitton's corporate headquarters in New York as part of a collaborative effort.

Protagonist in the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao hosted in 2023 the exhibitionYayoi Kusama: from 1945 to the present. The exhibition dedicated to the work of the veteran Japanese artist could be visited from June to October .

This exhibition, , involveda review of Kusama's artistic and personal career , exploring the existential questions that have driven his work for seven decades. Through documents in painting, drawing, sculpture, installations and performances, the exhibition addressed six major themes: Infinity, Accumulation, Radical Connectivity, Cosmic Nature, Death and Energy of Life , which reflectthe artist's particular view of the universe, identity and human existence.

Other major world institutions hosting Kusama exhibitions include the Venice Biennial, the MoMAin New York, the National Museum of Modern Artin Tokyo, the Sydney Museumof Contemporary Art, the Tate Modernin London, the Reina Sofia Art Centre in Madrid, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

A form of survival and therapy

Kusama, born in Matsumoto on March 22, 1929, began painting at the age of about 10. From the beginning, he used obsessive repetitive dots and patternssuch as nets and bows, using watercolor, cake and oil as his main themes.

From his youth, his style was influenced by pop art, performanceand contemporary, abstract and feminist art, always with a markedly avant-garde character.

In 1990, he voluntarily decided to enter a psychiatric hospital, from where he continued to create works of art in various formats.

"Throughout his extraordinary life entirely devoted to artistic creation, Kusama gained international recognition as a pioneering avant-garde artist . His creative work included visual arts, performance, fiction and poetry, "explains the biography of his website.

Born in a wealthy merchant family, Kusama, from an early age, suffered hallucinations and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as suicidal tendencies. During her childhood, she recounted on several occasions the physical and psychological abuse of her mother, who destroyed her works of art and forced her, among other things, to be a spy on her infidel father.

Kusama took advantage of all these situations to create art , and he used creation as a way of survival and therapy , so he turned bright dots and colors into international symbols of psychodelia.