Yayoi Kusama, high priestess of polka dots, has died

Yayoi Kusama pictured in New York in 2013. Andrew Toth/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Andrew Toth/Getty Images Yayoi Kusama pictured in New York in 2013. Andrew Toth/Getty Images Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, best known for her polka dot sculptures in eye-popping colors and shimmering "Infinity Rooms," has died. She was 97 years old. In a statement issued on Wednesday, her representative David Zwirner said Kusama passed away from "multiple organ failure" at a Tokyo hospital on Aug. 14. The wildly imaginative Kusama used her art to express her obsessions: Repetitive brushstrokes on dotted canvases she called infinity net paintings; giant orange and black, polka dotted pumpkins; enclosed rooms with mirrored walls and twinkling lights that seem to go on forever; fluorescent paintings and sculptures. She often described her artwork as a means of survival. For the viewer, it was a reflection of one's place in the vast universe. "Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos," she wrote. Top left: Dots Obsession — Love Transformed Into Dots, 2007. Top right: Sarah Stauderman looks through a peep hole to view Love Forever. Bottom left: They may look small, ...