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Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama turned the dots and nets she had seen in hallucinations since childhood into polka-dot paintings, pumpkin sculptures and mirrored Infinity Rooms. In 1977 she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and lived there by choice until her death in August 2026, aged 97, still working in a studio nearby.

Yayoi Kusama

Art

The story behind the card

Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, in Japan's Nagano Prefecture. From about the age of ten she saw dots, flowers and patterns that seemed to spread over everything around her, and she said that painting them was her way of taming the fear. In 1958 she moved to New York, where her net paintings, soft sculptures, happenings and first mirror rooms made her part of the city's avant-garde. She returned to Japan in 1973 and, after a period of severe depression, entered Seiwa Hospital in Tokyo in 1977, where art was part of treatment. From the 1990s her reputation grew worldwide, and she became one of the best-selling women artists of her time. She died on 14 August 2026.

Türkçe oku
Japon sanatçı Yayoi Kusama, çocukluğundan beri halüsinasyonlarında gördüğü noktaları ve ağları puantiyeli tablolara, balkabağı heykellerine ve aynalarla kaplı Sonsuzluk Odaları'na dönüştürdü. 1977'de Tokyo'da bir psikiyatri hastanesine kendi isteğiyle yattı ve Ağustos 2026'da 97 yaşında ölene dek orada yaşadı; hemen yakındaki atölyesinde çalışmayı hiç bırakmadı.

Kusama 1929'da Japonya'nın Nagano bölgesindeki Matsumoto kentinde doğdu. On yaşlarından itibaren çevresindeki her şeyi saran noktalar, çiçekler ve desenler görmeye başladı; bunları resmetmenin, korkusunu yatıştırmanın yolu olduğunu söylerdi. 1958'de New York'a taşındı; ağ resimleri, yumuşak heykelleri, doğaçlama gösterileri ve ilk ayna odalarıyla kentin öncü sanatçıları arasına girdi. 1973'te Japonya'ya döndü; ağır bir bunalım döneminin ardından 1977'de, tedavide sanattan yararlanılan Tokyo'daki Seiwa Hastanesi'ne yattı. 1990'lardan sonra ünü bütün dünyaya yayıldı ve döneminin eserleri en çok satan kadın sanatçılarından biri oldu. 14 Ağustos 2026'da hayatını kaybetti.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Yayoi Kusama
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