Japan's Yayoi Kusama, one of the world's most celebrated contemporary artists, has died aged 97, her company said Thursday, triggering tributes from around the world.The "polka dot queen" channeled hallucinations and battles with mental health into vibrant art featuring her trademark dots, nets and infinity motifs over a career spanning decades and continents.
"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," a statement said, announcing her death on August 14.
"She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul," it added.
Born in 1929 to a wealthy and conservative family -- by her account with a domineering mother and philandering father -- Kusama began producing her unique signature art aged 10.
"One day, after seeing a tablecloth with a red flower pattern on a desk, I saw the same red flower pattern all over the ceiling, windows and pillars. It filled the room, and covered my body," she wrote in her autobiography.
