Yayoi Kusama, famed Japanese artist known for polka dots and “Infinity” rooms, dies at 97

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist widely identified with polka dots and immersive “Infinity Rooms,” has died, NPR Culture reported. She was 97.

According to the report, Kusama’s work became recognizable for its repetition and absorption of viewers into fields of pattern. Her polka-dotted pumpkins were among the most visible images associated with her practice, while her “Infinity Rooms” helped define her reputation for creating large-scale environments intended to feel boundless.

Kusama’s art, as described in the NPR report, has been shown by museums and galleries worldwide. That broad exhibition footprint helped bring her visual language of dots, mirrored spaces, and repeating forms to a global audience spanning major institutional shows and contemporary art venues.

NPR Culture’s report frames Kusama’s career through the endurance of those signature motifs, which moved from standalone objects and installations to immersive experiences that emphasize scale and repetition. The “Infinity Rooms” in particular have been presented as a way of translating her obsession with pattern into a physical space, where visitors can step into a seemingly endless visual field.

Because the NPR report focuses on Kusama’s overall legacy rather than specific details of her final days or a particular institution’s announcement, additional particulars about her passing may need confirmation from other public statements by her representatives or major museums that have staged her exhibitions.

In the wake of her death, institutions that have mounted Kusama shows in recent years are likely to face practical questions about ongoing programming and interpretive materials tied to her work, including exhibition catalogs, educational guides, and related public events. Museums and galleries typically adjust programming once an artist dies, even when exhibitions are already scheduled to continue.

Kusama’s passing also highlights the continuing role of artists whose work crosses media boundaries between objects and environments. Her practice helped normalize the expectation that contemporary exhibitions can function as total experiences, and it contributed to public familiarity with installation art as a mainstream cultural form.

For audiences, her death marks the end of a personal creative arc that NPR describes as central to late-20th- and 21st-century contemporary art, while also reaffirming how widely her motifs and installations have traveled and been interpreted across different countries and collecting communities.