Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama, born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, turned a childhood filled with hallucinations into one of the most extraordinary artistic visions of the modern era. Known globally as the 'princess of polka dots,' she transformed obsessive patterns, bright colors, and mirrored infinity into a singular universe—blurring the line between mental landscape and material space. Against her family’s wishes, she pursued art relentlessly, eventually moving to New York in the 1950s to confront the male-dominated art world with nothing but her determination and a single polka dot.

Kusama’s My dying day in the land of glory I will fight with all love and little life on the line.

Kusama’s work defies category: she is part painter, part sculptor, part architect, and part performance artist. Her iconic 'Infinity Mirror Rooms' immerse viewers in endless reflections of light and space, echoing her childhood hallucinations of being swallowed by a field of talking flowers. For Kusama, repetition, especially her obsessive use of dots, is a form of self-obliteration: a way to lose the ego and merge with the cosmos. She once wrote, 'Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos.'

Kusama’s When I Was In Heaven I Gathered Magnificent Souls and Wept.

Deeply influenced by mental illness and personal trauma, Kusama has used art not only as expression but as survival. She voluntarily resides in a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, creating prolifically from her studio nearby. Her work confronts themes of psychological fragility, feminism, infinity, and spiritual unity, inviting viewers not just to observe but to dissolve into her vision. Art, for Kusama, is both therapy and transformation.

Over seven decades, Kusama has remained an avant-garde force: staging nude peace protests in the 1960s, influencing pop art and minimalism, designing fashion, and exhibiting globally. Her installations draw millions, yet her practice is rooted in solitude and persistence. By turning private visions into public space, Kusama reminds us that vulnerability can be cosmic, and that sometimes the most expansive universe begins within.

Yayoi Kusama, dressed in a polka-dotted outfit, seated among her immersive dot-covered artworks.

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Dig Deeper

Meet Yayoi Kusama, the artist who created a universe of dots! Growing up in rural Japan, Yayoi moved to New York City when she was 27 and became famous for her paintings, sculptures and performance art.

Yayoi Kusama lives in a psychiatric institution, which she entered voluntarily in 1977. She is now in her nineties and still works every single day. Known for her repeated dot patterns, her work has been marked with obsessiveness and a desire to escape from trauma. In this video, I show that despite her quirky personality and her status as the most popular artist in the world, she is one of the most radical artists of all time.

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