Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist whose obsessive polka dots, towering pumpkin sculptures and mesmerising Infinity Mirror Rooms captivated audiences worldwide, has died at the age of 97.The artist died on August 14 at a hospital in Tokyo due to multiple organ failure. Her studio and the city’s Yayoi Kusama Museum confirmed the news on August 27.“Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction and poetry,” her studio said in a statement.The museum added that Kusama “held fast to her belief in saving the world through love until the very end”.One of Kusama’s pumpkins is displayed at the Harbour Arts Sculpture Park on Hong Kong’s Central Harbourfront in February 2018. Photo: Sam TsangKusama enjoyed a particularly strong following in Hong Kong, and the city functioned as her primary commercial art market across Asia. Notably, it hosted the largest retrospective of her work on the continent outside her native Japan.That landmark exhibition, “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now”, was launched by Hong Kong’s M+ museum to celebrate its first anniversary in November 2022.