The art and fashion worlds are in mourning following the death of Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist whose obsessive dot patterns, mirrored infinity rooms, and pumpkin sculptures redefined the boundaries between fine art and fashion for over six decades.
Kusama passed away on August 14, 2026, at a hospital in Tokyo, at the age of 97. The news was confirmed by her studio, Yayoi Kusama Inc., in a statement released nearly two weeks after her passing. The studio shared that she continued painting until her final days, “never letting go of the brush,” and remained devoted to the themes that defined her life’s work: eternal love and the immortal soul.
Born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano, Kusama emerged from a childhood marked by vivid hallucinations , visions of dots and nets that consumed everything she saw , into one of the most influential artistic voices of the 20th and 21st centuries. She became a defining figure of pop art, minimalism, and feminist art, moving fluidly between painting, sculpture, performance, film, fashion, and literature.
For the fashion world specifically, Kusama’s legacy is inseparable from collaboration and crossover. Her polka-dot universe found its way onto runways, storefronts, and campaigns for decades, most famously through her collaborations with Louis Vuitton, which brought her signature dots to handbags, ready-to-wear, and window displays around the globe. Her immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms became some of the most photographed , and Instagrammed , art experiences of the social media era, cementing her as an artist whose work transcended gallery walls to shape visual culture at large.
Kusama spent her later years living voluntarily at a psychiatric facility in Tokyo, working from an adjacent studio and speaking openly about the mental health struggles that shaped her art, which she often described as a form of therapy.
Her studio has stated that it will continue to honor her wishes and legacy, saying it will keep offering “hope and strength” to people around the world through her art.
Yayoi Kusama is survived by an artistic legacy spanning pumpkins, polka dots, and infinite reflections , a body of work that will continue to influence fashion, art, and culture for generations to come.