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Yayoi Kusama poses for a photo inside an Infinity Mirror Room installation titled "The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" during a press preview of an exhibition held at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, U.S., on Nov. 7, 2013. / Reuters Yonhap

Yayoi Kusama, a world-renowned Japanese avant-garde artist, has passed away at the age of 97, Kyodo News and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 27th.

The Yayoi Kusama Museum announced in an official statement on the 27th that Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on the 14th.

"Kusama was a pioneering avant-garde artist who achieved international acclaim spanning visual art, performance, and literature," the museum said. "She continued to paint without putting down her brush until the final days of her life, pursuing an enduring exploration of eternal love and the immortal soul."

Born in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, in 1929, Kusama began her artistic career by channeling childhood hallucinations into her art.

After moving to the U.S. in 1957, she rose to prominence by introducing her "Infinity Nets" series—canvases filled entirely with dots—and soft sculptures made from pliable, variable materials such as fabric, rubber, cotton, vinyl, and leather instead of traditional sculptural media.

In the 1960s, she drew widespread attention and stirred social controversy by leading anti-Vietnam War protests and provocative performances.

After returning to Japan in 1973, deteriorating health led her to voluntarily check into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo four years later, where she continued her creative work while commuting to a nearby studio.

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A man walks past Yayoi Kusama's artwork "Pumpkin" at a press preview for the Ravenel auction held in Hong Kong on Nov. 23, 2012. / AP, Yonhap

She drew the art world's attention when representing the Japan Pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennale and gained broad public popularity with her signature polka-dot pumpkin sculptures.  

She received France's Order of Arts and Letters in 2003, was named a Person of Cultural Merit by Japan in 2009, and was awarded Japan's Order of Culture in 2016.  

Kusama's works have been exhibited at major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Tate Modern in London, and set an auction record at the time for the highest price paid for a work by a living female artist in 2014.  

                                                                                                           Lee Jeong-eun