Yellow tentacles decorated with rhythmic patterns of dots swirl around a room, the patterns echoed on the floor and the walls. Reflections bounce off mirrors, blurring the boundaries of the space at Amsterdam 's Stedelijk Museum.
The installation — specially created for an exhibition of the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who died Aug. 14 at age 97 — is titled “Infinity Mirrored Room — The Hope Of The Polka Dots Buried In Infinity Will Eternally Cover The Universe.”
The room is at the heart of the exhibition at the Stedelijk that opens this week, just two weeks after her death. What was to have been a retrospective has turned into a posthumous celebration of one of the globe's best known contemporary artists, who depicted her world splashed with polka dots and other repetitive motifs.
“We heard about her passing,” exhibition curator Leontine Coelewij told The Associated Press. “We decided to make it really a tribute. A tribute to her life. Tribute to her work, so that everybody can see what she is ... to us. So many wonderful works.”
Kusama's signature dots greet visitors before they even get into the museum in Amsterdam — they are plastered across its facade and even on red fabric wrapped around trees on the adjacent Museum Square.
Coelewij said that painting the dots was a way for the artist to process hallucinations she had from a young age. Among the works on display is a huge pumpkin made of fiber-reinforced plastic and polyurethane paint, its yellow skin covered in lines of black dots of varying sizes.
“So a lot of her work comes from these mental issues that she had,” Coelewij said. “And I think she made something beautiful out of it for her. It was also a way to explore ideas about infinity, for instance, like, how do we relate to the universe, to the cosmos, to the world around us?”
Kusama had long-standing links to the Netherlands and the Stedelijk. She was active in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities in the freewheeling 1960s, and her work was closely aligned to the ZERO movement established in the late 1950s by German artists, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene.
She was part of a landmark exhibition by the movement, also at the Stedelijk, in 1965. A photo from that Amsterdam exhibition shows Kusama, wearing a white kimono, standing among artists from the movement — mostly men in suits and ties.
In a famous “happening” in 1967, Kusama covered the naked body of Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven with painted dots in the chapel of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam near Rotterdam.
“She really liked the whole atmosphere in the Netherlands, which was rather open and tolerant, liberal,” Coelewij said. “She was also part of the counterculture of that moment, the hippie culture. You know, Amsterdam was the magical center, and she felt very much at home here.”
The new exhibition spans through several rooms before going up an escalator lined with mirrors to reach the infinity room installation one floor up.
It's Coelewij's favorite part of the show, created for the exhibition that was previously staged at Museum Ludwig in the German city of Cologne.
“There’s a lot of mirrors, there’s tentacles, there’s a lot of color, and it’s a ... you can say hallucinating world. You really step into her mind,” Coelewij said.
It's a fitting tribute to the artist who said 10 years ago that she felt her life was nearing its end but she was “still fighting to the death for my art.”
“I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead,” Kusama had said.
The exhibition at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk opens on Friday and runs through Jan. 17.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Yellow tentacles decorated with rhythmic patterns of dots swirl around a room, the patterns echoed on the floor and the walls. Reflections bounce off mirrors, blurring the boundaries of the space at Amsterdam ‘s Stedelijk Museum.
The installation — specially created for an exhibition of the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who died Aug. 14 at age 97 — is titled “Infinity Mirrored Room — The Hope Of The Polka Dots Buried In Infinity Will Eternally Cover The Universe.”
The room is at the heart of the exhibition at the Stedelijk that opens this week, just two weeks after her death. What was to have been a retrospective has turned into a posthumous celebration of one of the globe’s best known contemporary artists, who depicted her world splashed with polka dots and other repetitive motifs.
“We heard about her passing,” exhibition curator Leontine Coelewij told The Associated Press. “We decided to make it really a tribute. A tribute to her life. Tribute to her work, so that everybody can see what she is ... to us. So many wonderful works.”
Kusama’s signature dots greet visitors before they even get into the museum in Amsterdam — they are plastered across its facade and even on red fabric wrapped around trees on the adjacent Museum Square.
Coelewij said that painting the dots was a way for the artist to process hallucinations she had from a young age. Among the works on display is a huge pumpkin made of fiber-reinforced plastic and polyurethane paint, its yellow skin covered in lines of black dots of varying sizes.
“So a lot of her work comes from these mental issues that she had,” Coelewij said. “And I think she made something beautiful out of it for her. It was also a way to explore ideas about infinity, for instance, like, how do we relate to the universe, to the cosmos, to the world around us?”
Kusama had long-standing links to the Netherlands and the Stedelijk. She was active in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities in the freewheeling 1960s, and her work was closely aligned to the ZERO movement established in the late 1950s by German artists, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene.
She was part of a landmark exhibition by the movement, also at the Stedelijk, in 1965. A photo from that Amsterdam exhibition shows Kusama, wearing a white kimono, standing among artists from the movement — mostly men in suits and ties.
In a famous “happening” in 1967, Kusama covered the naked body of Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven with painted dots in the chapel of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam near Rotterdam.
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“She really liked the whole atmosphere in the Netherlands, which was rather open and tolerant, liberal,” Coelewij said. “She was also part of the counterculture of that moment, the hippie culture. You know, Amsterdam was the magical center, and she felt very much at home here.”
The new exhibition spans through several rooms before going up an escalator lined with mirrors to reach the infinity room installation one floor up.
It’s Coelewij’s favorite part of the show, created for the exhibition that was previously staged at Museum Ludwig in the German city of Cologne.
“There’s a lot of mirrors, there’s tentacles, there’s a lot of color, and it’s a ... you can say hallucinating world. You really step into her mind,” Coelewij said.
It’s a fitting tribute to the artist who said 10 years ago that she felt her life was nearing its end but she was “still fighting to the death for my art.”
“I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead,” Kusama had said.
The exhibition at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk opens on Friday and runs through Jan. 17.
‘She inspired my proposal … and our wedding day’Ciaran and Liam. Photograph: Unknown/Guardian CommunityI have always loved Yayoi Kusama’s work, and when I visited an exhibition of hers on a gap year in Sydney I was spellbound by her infinity mirror rooms. I immediately thought, despite being single at the time, this is a fantastic space to propose in. Fast forward around eight years and I am on one knee holding a ring out to my partner inside an infinity mirror room in Helsinki, with excited and expectant Finns looking on. He said yes. At the wedding, the breakfast was held under polka dotted pink lanterns. Kusama was a fantastic artist, who also protested for my ability to marry – performing her own gay wedding ceremonies before it was legally recognised – and inspired key aspects of my wedding. Liam, 40, Surrey
‘I saw her work and dissolved’Two years ago, while researching in Porto, I was encouraged by a friend to go see the Kusama retrospective at the museum in Parque de Serralves. I was fortunate to experience her remarkable installation Dots Obsession – Aspiring to Heaven’s Love. The powerful effect she termed as self-obliteration viscerally connected with me in that room. I didn’t exist, as I dissolved, the dots were everywhere. Humanity is blessed for her work and I’m grateful and humbled to have experienced it. David, Florida, US
‘I watched the sunset while sat next to her yellow pumpkin’I’ve been lucky enough to see a huge amount of Yayoi Kusama’s work in Japan and in Europe. Hunting down remote galleries in rural Japan to see her work, and spending time viewing it with no one else there has been an absolute treat. Sitting on the shore next to the yellow pumpkin on Naoshima [an “art island”] watching the sun set was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve had. Her work brings me a sense of peace and calm. She was truly inspirational. Rachel, London
‘She connected with people who didn’t know about art’A lot has been written about Yayoi Kusama’s life and artistic achievements, but perhaps her greatest legacy lies in her ability to bring people into the experience of art, including people who don’t consider themselves art lovers, such as my mother. I loved seeing how my mum was drawn to Kusama’s image and polka-dot works when we visited Tokyo together. You don’t need pretentious art-speak or an understanding of art history to appreciate her work. That direct, instinctive response made the encounter pure and joyful. I bought her a little Kusama plush key chain, which she attached to her bag and carries wherever she goes. It has become a small part of her life; and, for me, a part of our memories together. Vivienne Chow, London
‘I climbed inside a red pumpkin on Naoshima’Sandie in the red pumpkin on Naoshima, Japan’s art island. Photograph: Guardian CommunityI only recently became aware of her work from a visit to Naoshima, Japan’s art island, where two of her pumpkins are on display. Red Pumpkin is particularly great as you can climb inside. On returning home I was surprised and delighted that a pumpkin sculpture had arrived at Goodwood Art Foundation in Sussex. I’m now researching where to find more pumpkins as they always make me smile. Sandie, 61, London
‘I used to pee beneath a photo of her chopping a penis with a knife’From 2008 to 2012 I worked in Tokyo. On weekends I’d go to a gay bar in Shinjuku 2-chome for their ¥1000 “all you can drink” beer for several hours. Above the toilet was a black-and-white photo of Yayoi Kusama looking directly at the camera while holding a big knife chopping a penis (it was really a dildo) on a chopping board. Her eyes were powerful and drew you in. The picture was quite daunting to be looking at while you were peeing. I love that picture and her – she had a very mischievous face and her art was amazing. Peter Allison, 51, Stockton-on-Tees
‘Like losing a favourite neighbourhood auntie’We live around the corner from the Kusama Museum in Tokyo. It opened in 2017 when our now 11-year-old son was just two. We’ve visited every year since, watching him grow bigger among Kusama’s pumpkins and infinity rooms. We’ve often visited the museum as a pick-me-up when feeling down. My son and I watched the sunset from the roof on the day the UK exited the EU. Losing Kusama San is like losing a favourite neighbourhood auntie who was always there to bring us good cheer. Tina Burrett, 49, Tokyo, Japan
‘The world is a more colourful, whimsical, magical place”’I found her art rather late in my life, after 50, but it resonated with me so much that now I have one of her prints in nearly every room of my home. I find them all extremely uplifting and endlessly fascinating. The more I learned about her the more inspired I felt. From her devastating mental health struggles she found such a brilliant way of harnessing the most unique forms of creativity. There is a true magic in that, and we can all benefit from the lessons she has left us with. An enormous talent she was, and the world is a more colourful, whimsical and magical place graced with the art she made over her long and interesting life. Rest in Power dear Yayoi. You were loved and will be greatly missed. Susan, 55, Florida, US
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97.
Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said, without specifying the cause of death.
“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”
Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.
Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.
“Polka dots are fabulous,” Kusama said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, appearing in her signature orange bob wig and polka dot attire.
“I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw,” she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. “I will keep painting until I die.”
Pursuing her vision of art over a lifetimeKusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world: covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. She was in and out of psychiatric institution for decades, although her sickness did not hold her back as she was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art, in 1957.
Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, Kusama was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.
In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing.
In 2008, Christie’s auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.
Upon receiving the award, she told reporters she was more determined than ever to pursue her art, stressing that the sincerity and devotion she had demonstrated in her personal life were crucial parts of her artistic legacy.
“I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art,” she said. “I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead.”
Categories were not enough to represent her artKusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art.
She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her to simply get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.
When she arrived in New York, the fad was “action painting,” characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots.
She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in “happening” anti-war performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. While in New York, she befriended artists like Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe and Joseph Cornell, who praised her innovative style.
Over the years, Kusama made quirky but stunningly celebratory works like “Macaroni Girl,” a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; “The Visionary Flowers,” giant sculptures of twisting tulips, and “Mirrored Corridor,” a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots.
Kusama, who has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. The process was so mysterious sometimes she surprised herself, she told AP.
“I think, ‘Oh, I drew that? I was thinking that,’” she said.
But she appeared happy to have her art be the focus of media attention and praise, reading one of her poems to a reporter or tackling her artworks with gusto for photos.
But she was also a charmingly disarming mix of vulnerability and defiance, at one moment declaring herself “an artistic revolutionary,” and then the next, mumbling: “I am so afraid, all the time, of everything.”
Fans around the world share messages of lossThe news of her death was met with an outpouring of sadness from around the world, including museums that had exhibited her works.
Fans and artists alike praised her courageous persistence in vowing to continue creating art that, she said, will be recognized thousands of years after her death.
Messages recognizing her death were sent from people throughout Japan including Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and Yoshitomo Nara, a younger Japanese artist who has exhibited widely abroad.
“RIP Kusama-sensei,” Nara wrote on his X account, respectfully calling her a teacher in Japanese.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
TOKIO (AP) — La artista japonesa Yayoi Kusama, que salpicó sus característicos lunares en pinturas, esculturas e instalaciones museísticas en todo el mundo, ha muerto, informó su estudio el jueves. Tenía 97 años.
Kusama murió el 14 de agosto en un hospital de Tokio, informó Yayoi Kusama Studio, sin precisar la causa de la muerte.
“Continuó pintando hasta sus últimos días, sin dejar nunca el pincel, y siguió explorando el amor eterno y el alma eterna”, señaló el comunicado del estudio. “Llevaremos adelante los deseos de Kusama y, a través del arte, seguiremos llevando esperanza y fortaleza para el futuro a personas de todo el mundo”.
Kusama, una de las artistas contemporáneas más respetadas de Japón, fue exhibida ampliamente en todo el mundo, incluido el Museo de Arte Moderno en Nueva York, el Museo Tamayo de la Ciudad de México y el Museo Ludwig en Alemania.
Los motivos repetitivos eran su sello, en diversas formas, que recordaban redes, remolinos o gusanos, pero la mayoría de las veces lunares, que danzaban orgullosos en sus lienzos, o como bolas brillantes o puntos de luz en sus instalaciones, con toda su vibrante gloria psicodélica.
“Los lunares son fabulosos”, dijo Kusama en una entrevista de 2012 con The Associated Press con su característica peluca naranja tipo bob y un atuendo de lunares.
“Quiero crear mil pinturas, quizá dos mil pinturas, tantas como pueda dibujar”, dijo con un tono infantil pero directo. “Seguiré pintando hasta que muera”.
Persiguió su visión del arte durante toda una vidaKusama insistía en que dibujaba tal como veía el mundo: cubierto de manchas, parte de las alucinaciones que decía tener desde la infancia. Entró y salió de instituciones psiquiátricas durante décadas, aunque su enfermedad no la frenó, ya que fue una de las primeras mujeres japonesas en ir a Nueva York para dedicarse a su arte, en 1957.
Aunque de voz suave y tímida en sus modales, Kusama siempre fue audaz sin tapujos al afirmar su visión punteada, no solo al mantenerse fiel al estilo durante décadas, sino también al hacerlo accesible para las masas.
En sus últimos años, cuando los tiempos alcanzaron a su arte, disfrutó de la fama. Firmó acuerdos con marcas de moda como Louis Vuitton, así como con otros productos con licencia como tazas de té, camisetas y llaveros con sus ilustraciones, incluidas réplicas de su imagen que se usaron en escaparates y otras acciones de mercadotecnia.
Christie’s subastó su obra por 5,8 millones de dólares en 2008. Ella ganó en 2016 el premio más prestigioso que Japón otorga a sus artistas, la Orden de la Cultura.
Al recibir el galardón, les comentó a los reporteros que estaba más decidida que nunca a dedicarse a su arte, y subrayó que la sinceridad y la entrega que había demostrado en su vida personal eran partes cruciales de su legado artístico.
“Siento que queda poco en mi vida, pero ahora sigo luchando hasta la muerte por mi arte”, dijo. “Estoy dando todo lo que tengo para que muchas personas sigan interesándose por mi arte, incluso después de que yo haya muerto”.
Las categorías no bastaban para representar su arteA Kusama la calificaron de pop, vanguardista, feminista, por mencionar algunas de las categorías que le atribuyeron, la mayoría de las cuales Kusama desestimó por no representar del todo su arte.
Nació en una familia de clase media, pero se sentía incomprendida, ya que sus padres querían que simplemente se casara. Querían comprarle un kimono, no pinturas y pinceles. Ella sabía que tenía que irse. Eligió Estados Unidos.
Cuando llegó a Nueva York, la moda era la “pintura de acción”, caracterizada por goteos, barridos y manchas, no por puntos. Sufrió años de pobreza y anonimato. Pero siguió pintando puntos.
Colocó círculos de papel en los cuerpos de las personas, y una vez en un caballo, en actuaciones antibélicas tipo “happening” a finales de la década de 1960, lo que llevó a que algunas personas fueran arrestadas por obscenidad, pero ayudó a atraer la atención de los medios hacia su arte. Mientras estaba en Nueva York, entabló amistad con artistas como Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe y Joseph Cornell, quienes elogiaron su estilo innovador.
Con los años, Kusama realizó obras peculiares pero sorprendentemente celebratorias como “Macaroni Girl”, una figura femenina cubierta de macarrones, que expresa el miedo a la comida; “The Visionary Flowers”, esculturas gigantes de tulipanes retorcidos, y “Mirrored Corridor”, una sala con espejos que ofrece la ilusión de un campo de protuberancias fálicas salpicadas de puntos.
Kusama, que también hizo películas y publicó varias novelas, dijo que no estaba segura de dónde sacaba sus ideas. Simplemente tomaba el pincel y empezaba a dibujar. El proceso era tan misterioso que a veces se sorprendía a sí misma, le contó a AP.
“Pienso: ‘Oh, ¿yo dibujé eso? Yo estaba pensando eso’”, dijo.
Pero parecía feliz de que su arte fuera el centro de la atención y los elogios de los medios, al leer uno de sus poemas a un reportero o abordar sus obras con entusiasmo para las fotos.
Pero también era una mezcla encantadoramente desarmante de vulnerabilidad y desafío: en un momento se declaraba “una revolucionaria artística” y al siguiente murmuraba: “Tengo tanto miedo, todo el tiempo, de todo”.
Admiradores de todo el mundo comparten mensajes de pérdidaLa noticia de su muerte fue recibida con una oleada de tristeza desde todo el mundo, incluidos museos que habían exhibido sus obras.
Tanto admiradores como artistas elogiaron su valiente perseverancia al prometer seguir creando un arte que, según ella, será reconocido miles de años después de su muerte.
Se enviaron mensajes que reconocían su fallecimiento desde personas de todo Japón, incluida la gobernadora de Tokio, Yuriko Koike, y Yoshitomo Nara, un artista japonés más joven que ha expuesto ampliamente en el extranjero.
“RIP Kusama-sensei”, llamándola respetuosamente maestra en japonés, escribió Nara escribió en su cuenta de X:
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La periodista de The Associated Press Mari Yamaguchi contribuyó a este reportaje.
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Kageyama está en Threads en https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Yayoi Kusama, the visionary Japanese artist whose death at 97 was announced on Thursday, had a complicated relationship with her home country. She endured a traumatic childhood and was later shunned by the Japanese cultural elite for her provocative style.
But as news of Ms. Kusama’s passing spread, Japanese artists, scholars, politicians and art lovers rushed to celebrate her legacy, describing her as a cultural giant who helped bring Japanese art to the masses.
Ryutaro Takahashi, a prominent collector of Ms. Kusama’s works, said she was a genius who was “simultaneously the most avant-garde and the most accessible artist imaginable.”
“Her recognition in Japan was a case of playing catch-up with the rest of the world,” he said. “At the time, there was simply no room in Japan to accept her.”
Even as she earned global renown in the 1950s and 1960s for her immense abstract paintings that she called “Infinity Nets,” Ms. Kusama, who died on Aug. 14 in Tokyo, faced criticism from Japanese commentators. Her embrace of nudity in her works ran counter to conservative postwar values in Japan, and she was regarded by some Japanese as an outcast and embarrassment.
Visitors outside the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo on Thursday. — Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In Matsumoto, Ms. Kusama’s hometown, about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo, a local newspaper, the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, published a special edition on Thursday announcing her death. The newspaper hailed her as a “world-renowned avant-garde artist.”
The mayor of Matsumoto, Yoshinao Gaun, said that she had helped elevate the profile of her hometown. Her sculpture “Phantom Flowers,” of tulips covered in her signature polka dots, stands at the entrance of a local art museum. Some of the city’s buses feature a polka-dot design that honors her.
“Her works and activities, highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad, instilled pride in our citizens and served as a vital bridge connecting our city to the world,” Mr. Gaun said in a statement.
Ms. Kusama was born in 1929 to a wealthy family in Matsumoto. Her parents ran a wholesale seed business on a plot of land that the family had owned for more than a century.
She had a difficult childhood, enduring physical abuse from her mother and the trauma of her father’s infidelities, according to Ms. Kusama’s autobiography, which she published in 2002.
Yayoi Kusama at an exhibition of her work at the National Art Center in Tokyo in 2017. — Toshifumi Kitamura/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In 1948, despite the objections of her parents, she enrolled in art school in Kyoto and studied the Nihonga style of painting, which incorporates mineral pigments.
She left Japan in 1957 for the United States, eager to embark on an international career. Before she departed, she destroyed thousands of early drawings along a riverbank in Matsumoto — using a hatchet for some, and burning others — in the hope that she would create better work once she moved.
After a short stint in Seattle, Ms. Kusama went on to New York, where her career took off. She became one of the most successful contemporary artists of her generation.
She returned to Japan in 1973, feeling that Americans had lost interest in her. In 1977, she checked herself into a mental hospital in Tokyo, making it her permanent home and building a studio nearby, where she continued to work for decades.
She experienced hallucinations throughout her life, which she said helped inspire her semiabstract paintings.
“I am pursuing art in order to correct the disability which began in my childhood,” she said at one point.
Daisuke Miyatsu, a professor at the Yokohama University of Art and Design and a collector of Ms. Kusama’s works, said that he admired her ability to make a name for herself in the United States at a time when the art world was dominated by white men.
“Her physical body may have faded,” he said, referring to Ms. Kusama’s death, “but I believe she is the type of person whose consciousness continues to paint.”
In her autobiography, Ms. Kusama said she did not fear death, seeing it as “merely stepping into the next room.” She said that her mission was to create art that serves as a “requiem for myself — art that encompasses the significance of death, the beauty of its colors and spaces, the quietude of its footsteps, and the ‘nothingness’ that follows.”
“Living and dying are one and the same,” she wrote. “This is a truth I feel deeply.”
In 1966, visitors arriving at the Venice Biennale were confronted by an unusual sight. Spread across the lawn outside the Italian Pavilion were 1,500 shimmering silver spheres, each catching fragments of the surrounding architecture, the sky and anyone who stopped to look.
Reportedly, among them stood Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, dressed in a gold kimono. She had not been formally invited to exhibit at the Biennale, yet she had found a way to put her work in front of its international audience. The installation was called Narcissus Garden, and Kusama did something even more unexpected with it. She began offering the mirrored balls to visitors for about $2 each.
It was part artwork, part performance and part provocation aimed directly at the art market.
Decades later, Kusama would become one of the world's most recognisable contemporary artists. Her polka dots, pumpkins and Infinity Mirror Rooms would turn her into a global cultural figure, while her paintings and sculptures began selling for millions.
According to Reuters, her 1959 painting Untitled (Nets) eventually sold for $10.5 million at Phillips in New York in 2022, setting her auction record.
Kusama turned 1,500 mirrored spheres into a giant field of reflections
Narcissus Garden was not a conventional garden at all. Kusama arranged 1,500 mass-produced mirrored plastic spheres into a field of reflections outside the Italian Pavilion.
Each polished surface returned a distorted image of the person standing nearby. Visitors could see themselves, the landscape and the surrounding buildings repeated across the installation. The title came from the ancient story of Narcissus, who became captivated by his own reflection. Kusama used that idea to turn the audience into part of the work. Instead of simply looking at a sculpture, visitors were repeatedly confronted with their own image.
Kusama turned her Venice artwork into a $2-a-piece spectacle
As reported by Forbes, standing among the spheres in her gold kimono, Kusama invited visitors to buy them for 1,200 Italian lire, roughly $2 at the time.
A sign associated with the installation described the sale as “Your Narcissism for Sale”, turning the mirrored objects into inexpensive pieces that visitors could actually take away. At a prestigious international art exhibition, Kusama was effectively saying that anyone could own a piece of the spectacle. Instead of allowing the work to remain something reserved for galleries, collectors or institutions, she broke it apart and offered individual spheres directly to the public.
The act also questioned the way art acquires value. If a work displayed at one of the world's major exhibitions could be divided into hundreds of identical objects and sold cheaply, what exactly made one object 'art' and another merely a commodity?
Kusama used 1,500 mirrored balls to claim her own space in Venice
Kusama's position at Venice was unusual. She was not officially part of the exhibition, although sources note that she had support from Italian artist Lucio Fontana and permission from the Biennale committee's chairman to stage the installation outside the Italian Pavilion.
The reality was more complicated. She was not an official exhibitor, but she did have support and permission to install the work. Her decision to turn the installation into a direct sale, however, was what created the controversy.
The mirrored balls therefore did more than fill a patch of lawn. They gave Kusama a way to enter a major art event on her own terms. At the time, there was little indication that the artist would eventually become a household name.
PC: Public Delivery
From $2 spheres to a $10.5 million auction record
The original Narcissus Garden was made from plastic, but later versions used stainless steel spheres. The installation has since been recreated in different locations, allowing new audiences to encounter the same basic idea of a landscape transformed by hundreds or thousands of reflections.
The work's longevity is partly down to its simplicity. A mirrored ball is not complicated. Put 1,500 of them together, however, and the effect becomes overwhelming.
The viewer sees the environment multiplied across the surface of the installation, while their own reflection becomes impossible to ignore.
Kusama's financial rise was far slower than the fame of her imagery might suggest. Her early career involved years of experimentation and periods in which her work was overshadowed by better-connected male artists. She moved to New York in 1957 and became involved in the city's avant-garde scene, developing the obsessive net paintings that would later become central to her reputation.
One of those early paintings, Untitled (Nets) from 1959, eventually became her auction record and was on May 18, 2022, for $10.5 million.
That figure is almost impossible to reconcile with the scene in Venice six decades earlier. There, Kusama was offering individual mirrored spheres for roughly $2. At auction, one of her paintings would later command millions.
I once had an argument about Yayoi Kusama with Peter Gabriel. Not in person – I’ve never met the prog rock hero. But after I recorded some critical comments on her work for the BBC, I watched the segment only to see Gabriel passionately defending her. My onscreen cynicism seemed harsh indeed compared with his soulful appreciation of all those dots.
My scepticism about Kusama started the first time I saw her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The context is significant because after a big dose of Jackson Pollock’s looping, tangled forests of colour and line (colour as line), Piet Mondrian’s pulsing Broadway Boogie Woogie and other great abstract art, Kusama’s dots appeared to me static, planned, predictable. I wasn’t excited or moved.
A woman admires The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe by Yayoi Kusama at Aviva Studios, Manchester. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty ImagesWell, things grow on you, or perhaps you just give up resisting when something is everywhere. Kusama is truly ubiquitous, not just in galleries but social media, her moving life story adding to the popularity of her art, her cosmic sensibility carrying global audiences along on psychedelic journeys into a natural world supercharged with outsized pixelations.
It was hard to resist her vision when I caught up with the Kusama phenomenon at Aviva Studios, Manchester, where vast installations and inflatables of dot-covered octopus tentacles and giant pumpkins made an industrial space feel enchanted and sublime.
But I can still walk into a Kusama mirror room and see just an infinity of nothing. And when I come across one of her pumpkins at an art fair or biennial, it can be extraordinarily blank, a by-the-numbers exercise in commodified multiple art. The Kusama cult has grown alongside and inside a contemporary art world of slick worldwide galleries, with branches from LA to Hong Kong, and a clientele of one percenters who buy art like jewellery. Her work has an obvious decorative appeal to this modern art market: one of those big spotty fruits would be great by the pool. Yet so meaningful!
In truth, there’s little connection between Kusama’s troubled life and anti-war activism and the feelgood vibes of her art. Those lurid greens and oranges punctuated by lines of little black circles cannot really be experienced as marks of trauma or expressive howls. Instead they create a dreamy utopia.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Art has a vocation to soothe and delight. But it takes a lot of Kusama to get me in the mood: where one of her works leaves me shrugging, a vast gathering does create enjoyable sensory overload.
It all depends your receptiveness and in particular how much of your critical brain you are able to shut down. There is art that’s nice to look at and art that harrows the soul. Kusama is seen by some as soulful but her work is as harrowing as a cupcake. It can be a lot of fun, but I don’t think she was a patch on truly mind-bending abstract artists like Pollock or Bridget Riley.
When you look into one of Riley’s abstract vortices your brain is interfered with. You see depths and heights that are not there. It’s an intelligent trip that opens the mind, leading you to imagine infinities of space while also seeing the illusory nature of the everyday assumptions we live by. One work by Kusama, least of all her Infinity Rooms, can’t provide that complexity. You have to overdose on them, drowning out your inner nay-saying voice with so many dots you dizzy yourself.
Lots of everything, on infinite screens, filling every moment, crowding out thought. Yayoi Kusama was the mirror of our time. That is undeniable.
Yayoi Kusama – who has died at the age of 97 – was 10 when she first started experiencing vivid hallucinations consisting of visual and aural disturbances, which she described as “flashes of light, auras, or dense fields of dots”. A drawing from 1939, of a woman in a kimono assumed to be her mother, shows her obliterated by those dots; they would become Kusama’s artistic obsession. She hallucinated flowers, too. “I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe”, she once said, when asked about that recurring motif. “I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness.”
For Kusama, art making was a means of survival. “I fight pain, anxiety, and fear every day, and the only method I have found that relieved my illness is to keep creating art. I followed the thread of art and somehow discovered a path that would allow me to live”, she said in a 2012 interview. In so doing, she became one of the most acclaimed and admired contemporary artists, staging happenings and influencing the pop art movement as a pioneering figure in the New York avant garde. Her exhibitions and major retrospectives draw huge crowds. In 2022, due to enormous public demand, Tate Modern in London extended her Infinity Mirror Rooms show for a whole extra year (it ended up running until 2024).
Nnena Kalu, winner of the Turner prize 2025. Photograph: James Speakman/PAKusama leaves a planet that is far more enlightened about mental illness and neurodivergence than that which she entered. Different ways of seeing are increasingly embraced by the art world, which is beginning to understand how the brilliant, beautiful diversity of the human brain can feed into groundbreaking artistic practice. Neurodivergent, disabled and autistic artists are nominated for major prizes, and last year Nnena Kalu, who is autistic and has a learning disability, won the Turner prize. Furthermore, artists such as Louis Wain, who was schizophrenic, and Andy Warhol – who had traits consistent with autism – are increasingly viewed through the lens of neurodiversity.
“Artists like Kusama, much like our own Nnena Kalu, have shown that great art does not come from a single source or follow a traditional route,” said a spokesperson for ActionSpace, a London organisation who support and facilitate work by learning disabled artists. “The art world is richer for it, and their work continues to challenge us to recognise and celebrate the many voices that shape it.”
Despite the historically unfair stigma of mental illness, Kusama was always vocal about her struggles and how they fed into her work, in the 1970s voluntarily checking herself into a mental-health facility in Tokyo and working in a studio nearby. Processing the “obliteration” she experienced involved repetitive ways of working – those signature dots and flowers covering everything including her own clothing – while her extraordinary infinity rooms installations of mirrors and lights took the concept of sensory overload and turned it into something magical and all-encompassing. In this way, we were granted a powerful glimpse through Kusama’s eyes.
“Kusama’s practice seemed to channel the intrinsic auditory, repetitive and hallucinatory compulsions that she experienced,” says Kate Adams, director and co-founder of Project Art Works, a collective of artists with complex needs, and their collaborators who were nominated for the Turner prize in 2021. “Rather than create an escape from these, her installations shaped and described for others a sometimes beautiful, sometimes overwhelming world of intensity, pattern and form.
An enduring influence … Yayoi Kusama as a young woman. Photograph: Magnolia Pictures/Everett/Shutterstock“This has parallels with the way in which stimming, hyper focus and innate sensory sensitivities find a way into the rich practices of neurodivergent artists and makers,” she continues. Adams points out that mental illnesses such as OCD are not necessarily the same as neurodivergence – we should be wary of grouping them all together. There can be parallels though, in Adams’ words “when anxiety overwhelms wellbeing”. Often diagnoses can overlap.
This is true of my brother, who is profoundly autistic: non-verbal, with OCD. Although he is unable to tell me, I have always instinctively known that he sees the world differently. He had a childhood fascination with the way light is reflected on water, and his fear of the dark knots in the wood of the pine bathroom’s walls saw my mother frantically painting them over the moment she realised what was going on. That ASD comes with sensory differences has long been known in the autism community, but awareness has now reached a point where sensory rooms are cropping up in schools, hotels and airports. Exploring Kusama’s infinity rooms at Tate Modern with my son, who was then a baby, was a meaningful moment for me. The older children at his nursery had also been to visit, and for a while the walls were covered with pictures of dots that they had made as a tribute to Kusama.
Kusama often referenced how art had saved her, saying: “If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago.” Although disabled and neurodivergent artists still face major barriers, and still experience moments of sadness and despair that are shared by those of us that love them, Kusama’s work and enduring influence stand as a lasting tribute to the complex magnificence of human perception and experience.
TOKYO — Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97.
Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said, without specifying the cause of death.
“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures, and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.
Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls, or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.
“Polka dots are fabulous,” Kusama said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, appearing in her signature orange bob wig and polka dot attire.
“I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw,” she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. “I will keep painting until I die.”
“Polka dots are fabulous,” Kusama said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, appearing in her signature orange bob wig and polka dot attire. AFP via Getty Images Pursuing her vision of art over a lifetime Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world: covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. She was in and out of a psychiatric institution for decades, although her sickness did not hold her back, as she was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art in 1957.
Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, Kusama was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.
In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts, and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing.
Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said, without specifying the cause of death. AP Photo/Kathy Willens In 2008, Christie’s auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.
Upon receiving the award, she told reporters she was more determined than ever to pursue her art, stressing that the sincerity and devotion she had demonstrated in her personal life were crucial parts of her artistic legacy.
“I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art,” she said. “I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead.”
Categories were not enough to represent her art Kusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art.
She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her to simply get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.
When she arrived in New York, the fad was “action painting,” characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots.
She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in “happening” anti-war performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. While in New York, she befriended artists like Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe and Joseph Cornell, who praised her innovative style.
Over the years, Kusama made quirky but stunningly celebratory works like “Macaroni Girl,” a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; “The Visionary Flowers,” giant sculptures of twisting tulips, and “Mirrored Corridor,” a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots.
Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls, or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory. AP Photo/Vincent Yu
Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world: covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. AP Photo/Oded Balilty Kusama, who has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. The process was so mysterious that sometimes she surprised herself, she told AP.
“I think, ‘Oh, I drew that? I was thinking that,’” she said.
But she appeared happy to have her art be the focus of media attention and praise, reading one of her poems to a reporter or tackling her artworks with gusto for photos.
A man admires an artwork entitled “A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe” featured in Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition “You, Me and the Balloons” on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at the Aviva Studios gallery in Manchester, northwest England. AFP via Getty Images
An installation of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama peering over the Louis Vuitton flagship store is pictured at the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. AP Photo/Michel Euler But she was also a charmingly disarming mix of vulnerability and defiance, at one moment declaring herself “an artistic revolutionary,” and then the next, mumbling: “I am so afraid, all the time, of everything.”
Fans around the world share messages of loss The news of her death was met with an outpouring of sadness from around the world, including museums that had exhibited her works.
“I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art,” Kusama said. “I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead.” AFP via Getty Images Fans and artists alike praised her courageous persistence in vowing to continue creating art that, she said, will be recognized thousands of years after her death.
Messages recognizing her death were sent from people throughout Japan, including Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and Yoshitomo Nara, a younger Japanese artist who has exhibited widely abroad.
“RIP Kusama-sensei,” Nara wrote on his X account, respectfully calling her a teacher in Japanese.
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CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — La recientemente fallecida artista japonesa Yayoi Kusama, cuyos característicos lunares cubrían toda clase de objetos, tuvo hace más de una década una exposición que causó furor en México, donde los asistentes hasta acamparon para poder verla.
La muestra “Obsesión Infinita” se inauguró el 26 de septiembre de 2014 en el Museo Tamayo, especializado en arte contemporáneo, en la Ciudad de México y, a medida que se acercaba su fecha de cierre del 18 de enero de 2015, la fila crecía y crecía, al grado que se hizo un maratón de asistencia para el cual se registraron casi 10.000 personas que ingresaron durante las 36 horas en las que el museo permaneció abierto ininterrumpidamente.
En total, la exposición recibió a más de 320.000 personas, según cifras del gobierno mexicano. Era la primera muestra retrospectiva de la artista japonesa en Latinoamérica y la primera vez que se registraban tantos visitantes en una exposición de México.
Tenía más de 100 obras creadas entre 1950 y 2013, como piezas de su serie “Infinity net”, la película “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration” y las instalaciones “Phalli’s field”, “Obliteration room” e “Infinity mirror room”.
La exposición fue organizada por el museo Malba de Buenos Aires, otra ciudad en la que causó revuelo y convocó a 180.000 asistentes, además de provocar la decoración con lunares en las calles aledañas al recinto. También estuvo en Río de Janeiro, Brasilia y Sao Paulo. Tras su paso por México, viajó a Chile.
A lo largo de la carrera de Kusama, su obra también llegó a museos como el de Arte Moderno en Nueva York, el Museo Ludwig en Alemania y la galería Tate Modern de Londres. En 2016 ganó el premio más prestigioso que Japón otorga a sus artistas, la Orden de la Cultura.
Kusama nació en la ciudad de Matsumoto en 1929. Decía que dibujaba como veía el mundo: cubierto de manchas por las alucinaciones que afirmaba tener desde la infancia. Entró y salió de instituciones psiquiátricas durante décadas.
Se mudó a Nueva York en 1957, donde sufrió años de pobreza y anonimato, pero siguió pintando puntos en obras caracterizadas por la seriación y la repetición. También entabló amistad con artistas como Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe y Joseph Cornell, quienes elogiaron su estilo innovador.
“Los lunares son fabulosos”, dijo Kusama en una entrevista de 2012 con The Associated Press con su característica peluca naranja y un atuendo de lunares. “Quiero crear 1.000 pinturas, quizá 2.000 pinturas, tantas como pueda dibujar”, agregó.
Kusama murió el 14 de agosto en un hospital de Tokio, informó Yayoi Kusama Studio, sin precisar la causa de la muerte. Tenía 97 años.
“Continuó pintando hasta sus últimos días, sin dejar nunca el pincel, y siguió explorando el amor eterno y el alma eterna”, señaló el estudio en un comunicado.
___
Las periodistas de The Associated Press Yuri Kageyama y Mari Yamaguchi contribuyeron a este despacho desde Tokio.
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese art icon whose hypnotic polka dots, whimsical pumpkins and dazzling “Infinity Mirror Rooms” made her a global sensation, died Aug. 14 at a Tokyo hospital. She was 97.
But nearly 6,800 miles away, Kusama’s work lives on in some unexpected corners of New York City — where seeing it doesn’t require a museum ticket, an advance reservation or hours spent waiting in line.
One of the most striking examples is hiding in plain sight beneath Midtown Manhattan.
At Grand Central Madison, commuters pass every day by “A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe,” Kusama’s sprawling glass mosaic commissioned for the Long Island Rail Road terminal.
Kusama passed away in mid-August — but the news was only released this week. Getty Images
A general view of Yayoi Kusama’s glass mosaic, “A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe,” at Grand Central Madison in Midtown, New York. James Keivom for NY Post
Commuters walk past Yayoi Kusama’s colorful glass mosaic on their way to the LIRR platforms. James Keivom for NY Post
A closer look at the colorful details of Yayoi Kusama’s glass mosaic, filled with whimsical faces, polka dots and fantastical forms. James Keivom for NY Post The permanent 2022 work sits along the Madison Concourse between East 46th and 47th streets, filling the passageway with bold colors, lines and fantastical forms. The work expands on Kusama’s “My Eternal Soul” series, which she began in 2009.
The MTA says the mosaic conveys themes of love, the universe and peace central to Kusama’s work — and that the artist hoped it would “bring joy” to people encountering it as they passed through the station.
On Thursday, just hours after news of Kusama’s death broke, The Post found commuters and visitors doing just that.
Sandrine Gold, a 51-year-old teacher from Port Washington, stopped and began snapping photos — without realizing she was looking at the work of one of the world’s most famous contemporary artists.
Sandrine Gold, a teacher at the Long Island School for the Gifted, takes a photo of Yayoi Kusama’s glass mosaic. James Keivom for NY Post “I was just walking by in the subway and noticed this amazing art on the wall,” Gold told The Post. “I love how rich and inspiring the colors are.”
Gold, who teaches Spanish and French at the Long Island School for the Gifted and also leads an after-school art class, said the work immediately gave her ideas to take back to her students.
“The colors were really catching my attention and started to inspire me for my classes,” she said.
Her chance encounter captures something unusual about Kusama’s presence in New York: Some of her art can be stumbled upon entirely by accident.
Dante Cerchiara, 2, and his mother, Jessica Cerchiara, of Franklin Square, N.Y., also enjoyed the late artist’s mosaic while walking through the terminal. James Keivom for NY Post That’s a sharp contrast with the frenzy surrounding Kusama’s blockbuster exhibitions.
Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Rooms” became an international sensation, drawing huge crowds for the chance to step inside her mirrored, seemingly endless spaces.
Her 2013 David Zwirner exhibition in Chelsea featured “The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” one of the installations that helped propel her to an even wider popular audience.
Kusama was known internationally for her mirrored rooms exhibits, which made appearances in cities including New York and Los Angeles. REUTERS But Kusama’s footprint in New York has extended beyond galleries and museums — and beyond Grand Central.
For years, one of her signature pumpkins also greeted residents at SKY, the massive 1,175-unit rental tower at 605 W. 42nd St.
The custom bronze “Pumpkin,” installed in 2016, sat in the building’s cobblestoned motor court, bringing Kusama’s unmistakable polka dots to the base of the glass-and-steel tower. The more than 2,600-pound sculpture is no longer at the property.
Kusama’s connection to New York stretches back nearly seven decades.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, she moved to New York in 1958 and became part of the city’s avant-garde art scene, developing her “Infinity Net” paintings while experimenting with sculpture, performance and installations. She returned to Japan in the 1970s.
Decades later, her work would return to New York on a vastly different scale — filling galleries with crowds and commanding millions of dollars in the international art market.
But for New Yorkers like Gold, Kusama’s legacy can still appear much more unexpectedly — simply on the way to catch a train.
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This week, Sarah Hilton looks back at the surprising mainstream success of the late artist Yayoi Kusama, Isabel Reynolds explores why Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stayed home this summer, and Lily Nonomiya explains the significance of the price of rice balls.
Years before the polka-dotted pumpkins, before the Instagrammable Infinity Mirror Rooms, Yayoi Kusama made art that was charged with oppositional energy. Her performances, in which she painted dots onto the naked bodies of her collaborators, were an expression of ’60s counterculture. They were protests against the Vietnam War, rebukes to the art market. Her Accumulations—soft sculptures of furniture or common household items covered in stuffed, handsewn penis shapes—were hilarious critiques of phallocentrism and early examples of feminist art.
Kusama was, in other words, part of the artistic avant-garde. Her death, at 97, is a cold reminder that the avant-garde no longer exists.
You could point to Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, or Keith Haring, but in many ways, no one epitomizes the collapse of the avant-garde more vividly than Kusama. I’m mostly a fan of her work. It’s very hard not to like her Infinity Mirror Room installations and playful gourds, and not to smile when you see Kusama’s endearing face framed by her signature brightly colored bobbed wig. But at a certain point, you can’t help but feel that she stopped being an artist and chose instead to become a highly profitable brand.
In death as in life, her name bestrides a tightly managed, commercially successful global enterprise with diverse revenue streams, including high-profile partnerships with luxury labels, licensed merchandise, and strictly managed intellectual-property protection. Kusama’s large-scale sculptures and immersive installations break attendance records at museums and galleries around the world, and her works regularly set records at auction. In her final years, she was one of the world’s top-selling contemporary artists.
Decades before all of that, though, Kusama was a creative maverick. After moving to New York from Tokyo in the late 1950s, she became a pioneer of both pop art and minimalism, then a key figure in performance art. She called her early breakthrough paintings—expansive, swirling fields of tightly packed dots—Infinity Nets. Before even Andy Warhol (although after Marcel Duchamp), she made her own persona an expression of her art, paving the way for such figures as Gilbert and George, the British-artist duo who made life itself a performance.
Seymour Wally / NY Daily News / Getty
Yayoi Kusama paints Kent Feathergill in 1967.
Kusama’s artworks had countercultural energy. They fought against cliché. They critiqued patriarchy. They broke down starchy inhibitions and wobbled magnificently on the edge of the rational. They tried, in other words, to open up new ways of seeing.
That was what the avant-garde was all about: It was an attempt to see the world afresh. For many of its leading figures, from the Impressionists in the 1870s to conceptual artists a century later, this also meant proposing new and better solutions to the problem of how to be and how to live together. These proposals, many times rooted in sympathy and love, were presented as alternatives to the political structures and market logic that had so often led to war, exploitation, hopelessness, and suffering.
Even when attempts to turn these imagined alternatives into reality failed—and often dismally—the avant-garde stood in a clear relationship to modernity’s traumas. It was like the whistle cap in the spout of a boiling kettle: both a release of suppressed pressures (psychic and cultural) and an alarm.
But society got sick of hearing the alarm. And the kettle got tired of whistling.
Kusama, having experienced a period of art-world success, had her own breakdown after returning to Tokyo permanently in 1973. Two years later, she checked herself in to a psychiatric institution, where she became a permanent resident from 1977 until her death. The institution was within walking distance of her multistory studio.
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Her psychic travails had to do with her upbringing (she had an authoritarian mother and an unfaithful father), which left her afraid of sex and intimacy. She suffered from severe audiovisual hallucinations, in which she would see flashing lights, auras, and dense fields of dots. She fell into deep episodes of clinical depression and attempted suicide twice.
When Kusama reemerged as an active artist in 1989, she and her supporters presented her mental-health issues not just as an important aspect of her personal story but as part of the energy that fueled her artwork. All of this was healthy frankness, but it also undoubtedly enhanced her work’s reception. People could relate to the idea of creativity as a function of—and therapy for—mental illness.
Kusama and her promoters emphasized the link, tapping into narratives about the artist as a suffering visionary that went back to Van Gogh and even earlier artists (including such figures as Piero di Cosimo, Caravaggio, and Rosso Fiorentino) whose artistic brilliance was linked to their strange behavior and (perhaps) mental instability. In the 20th century, the idea of a connection between creativity and interior turmoil was taken up with renewed gusto, and the category of outsider art (or art brut) was established. Outsider artists could reconnect us to the amputated life of the emotions, re-enchanting a world diagnosed by Max Weber, in 1917, as disenchanted.
Kusama was one of many artists who swam with these currents. She talked about her repeating dots as an expression of an inclination toward “self-obliteration”—an urge to dissolve into forever-expanding patterns. The idea sounded at once mystical, therapeutic, and nightmarish. The idea that it might be all three only increased her appeal.
Christopher Furlong / Getty
The immersive exhibition “You, Me and the Balloons” in Manchester, England, in 2023
This second phase of Kusama’s art-world success far surpassed the first, proving, among other things, that you didn’t need to be in New York for your career to go gangbusters. She became one of the most popular artists on Earth. For museums struggling with attendances, she guaranteed box-office bonanzas.
Her zany, luridly wigged persona helped dismantle the intimidation factor that prevents many people from relating to art and museums. Her work’s upbeat vibes and instant recognizability (spotted pumpkins!) were huge factors in her popularity. They made it easy to let go of the idea that you had to have prior knowledge or be somehow “initiated” into art before you could enjoy it.
Jim Dyson / Getty
One of the artist’s Infinity Mirror Rooms in 2008 in Liverpool, England
But the speed with which Kusama converted her popularity into massive commercial success was sobering, if only because it seemed to signal her total co-option by the market. A turning point came in 2012, when the luxury-goods brand LVMH, under the creative direction of Marc Jacobs, incorporated Kusama’s polka dots into its clothing lines, adorning stores all around the world with her designs. As Georgina Adam reported in her 2014 book, Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, the collaboration caused sales of Kusama’s work to take off and exposed her to audiences she would have never reached otherwise.
From that point on, Kusama’s absorbing and fresh art, once charged by avant-garde energies, became more or less a meaning-free expression of market principles, an exercise in branding. She soon became a social-media phenomenon—the world’s most Instagrammable artist. Crowds waited in long lines just to spend 30 or 90 seconds in her Infinity Mirror Rooms taking selfies.
Kusama’s talk of self-obliteration sounds vaguely Buddhist or Taoist. But I suspect it’s more clearly seen, in the late phase of Kusama’s career, as pure capitalism at work—a function of the same logic relied on by Big Tech as it converts the liberating potential of the internet into addiction, polarization, and advertising revenue, and a drastic narrowing of human potential. You will no longer need an inner life, says this logic. You will no longer even be you. You will be data points and dollar signs. You will be ubiquitous, self-obliterating dots.
Kusama also achieved something that has eluded other artists who were co-opted by commerce and converted avant-garde energies into branding, including Warhol, Haring, Koons, and Murakami. The artist—an adorable maker of giant spotted pumpkins who lived in a psychiatric institution—became beyond criticism. You could no more criticize her than you could a grandmother giving a teddy bear to an orphan.
Chesnot / Getty
The headquarters of the Maison Louis Vuitton in 2023 in Paris, France
I have almost always felt delight when I’ve entered one of Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms or encountered her pumpkins. But I smell something rotten behind their sameness and ubiquity. Successful branding is exactly what art at its best is not: a form of general seduction rather than specific engagement. I prefer the earlier Kusama, the artist of extraordinary boldness, who carved out thrilling new possibilities for art in a hostile, male-dominated field. For this, she paid a heavy personal price. But it didn’t stop her from making art that felt specific to her, art targeted directly at you and me.
Ultra-rare watches, handbags and jewellery will be sold through a months-long disposal exercise
[SINGAPORE] A 15.02-carat yellow diamond and a Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Bag are among the first rare assets from Singapore’s S$3 billion money laundering case that will be offered to the public on Sep 7.
They form part of a far larger disposal exercise involving more than 80 properties and over 1,000 luxury items forfeited in connection with the case, which saw 10 foreigners convicted of money laundering and other offences.
According to Deloitte Singapore, which was appointed by the Singapore Police Force in July 2025 to manage and realise the forfeited non-cash assets, the assets will be released in phases from this September to mid-2027.
Among the lots is this limited-edition Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama yellow-and-black monogram leather pumpkin bag, with an estimate of S$12,000 to S$16,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ The first wave will comprise two online auctions conducted by Singapore auction house Hotlotz, with 338 handbags and accessories, and 286 pieces of fine jewellery.
Together, the two sales carry pre-auction estimates of S$2.9 million to S$3.9 million, Hotlotz founder and CEO Matthew Elton tells The Business Times.
The marquee lot is a 15.02-carat fancy yellow diamond ring, estimated at S$200,000 to S$300,000.
A Hermes Kelly diamond bracelet in white gold, set with 263 diamonds totalling 30.31 carats, is estimated at S$150,000 to S$200,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Close behind is a rare Hermes Kelly bracelet in white gold, set with 263 diamonds weighing a combined 30.31 carats, and valued at S$150,000 to S$200,000.
A Bulgari Serpenti necklace, its articulated serpent head picked out with diamonds and emerald eyes, carries an estimate of S$60,000 to S$80,000.
The handbag sale boasts several eye-catching pieces from Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. They include:
SEE ALSO
A limited-edition Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Bag, estimated at S$12,000 to S$16,000;A customised Louis Vuitton jewellery trunk painted with floral and Eiffel Tower motifs; andA Mini Lady Dior in matte white Himalaya Niloticus crocodile.The collection is not, however, confined to trophy pieces. Some Chanel costume jewellery and accessories in the first sale carry estimates of just a few hundred dollars.
“I think people will be quite surprised that actually some pieces are quite accessible,” says Elton.
Future sales will include a “grail-watch”, the Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon in platinum. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ The September auctions are only the opening act: Hotlotz plans 15 sales through May 2027, with later instalments devoted to Hermes handbags and watches from makers including Patek Philippe, Richard Mille and Rolex.
Among the rare and highly coveted timepieces are Richard Mille RM 07-02 Automatic Pink Sapphire, Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon in platinum, and Patek Philippe Nautilus Perpetual Calendar in white gold. Their estimates have not been revealed.
Another rare timepiece up for auction is the Richard Mille RM 07-02 Automatic in pink sapphire. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Catalogues for the first two sales will be published at 10 am on Sep 7, when bidding begins. The handbag auction closes on Sep 20, while the first jewellery auction ends on Sep 27.
Bidding will take place entirely online and will be open internationally. Participants must register for each auction and undergo identity verification. Approved bidders will also be able to book limited appointments to inspect the goods at Le Freeport in Singapore.
Hotlotz says that its estimates are benchmarked against comparable international auction results rather than original retail prices. Condition, scarcity and completeness – whether a piece still has its box, receipt, dust bag or other accompanying material – can all affect value.
This Mini Lady Dior, created in collaboration with artist Judy Chicago, is valued at S$4,000 to S$5,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Designer goods aside, more than 80 real estate properties are also due to be offered progressively between September 2026 and mid-2027.
SRI, Edmund Tie & Company and Knight Frank have been appointed to conduct the property auctions, while selected properties will be marketed by List International Realty through an expression-of-interest process.
Which properties appear in each phase – and when – has yet to be disclosed. Details on auction schedules, viewing arrangements and bidding procedures will be released later by the respective agencies.
Deloitte says the number and composition of assets in each phase are still being finalised and could change as authentication and other preparatory work is completed.
The firm has cautioned members of the public to participate only through auctions and sales processes conducted by, or officially linked to, the appointed agencies.
Ultra-rare watches, handbags and jewellery will be sold through a months-long disposal exercise
[SINGAPORE] A 15.02-carat yellow diamond and a Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Bag are among the first rare assets from Singapore’s S$3 billion money laundering case that will be offered to the public on Sep 7.
They form part of a far larger disposal exercise involving more than 80 properties and over 1,000 luxury items forfeited in connection with the case, which saw 10 foreigners convicted of money laundering and other offences.
According to Deloitte Singapore, which was appointed by the Singapore Police Force in July 2025 to manage and realise the forfeited non-cash assets, the assets will be released in phases from this September to mid-2027.
Among the lots is this limited-edition Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama yellow-and-black monogram leather pumpkin bag, with an estimate of S$12,000 to S$16,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ The first wave will comprise two online auctions conducted by Singapore auction house Hotlotz, with 338 handbags and accessories, and 286 pieces of fine jewellery.
Together, the two sales carry pre-auction estimates of S$2.9 million to S$3.9 million, Hotlotz founder and CEO Matthew Elton tells The Business Times.
The marquee lot is a 15.02-carat fancy yellow diamond ring, estimated at S$200,000 to S$300,000.
A Hermes Kelly diamond bracelet in white gold, set with 263 diamonds totalling 30.31 carats, is estimated at S$150,000 to S$200,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Close behind is a rare Hermes Kelly bracelet in white gold, set with 263 diamonds weighing a combined 30.31 carats, and valued at S$150,000 to S$200,000.
A Bulgari Serpenti necklace, its articulated serpent head picked out with diamonds and emerald eyes, carries an estimate of S$60,000 to S$80,000.
The handbag sale boasts several eye-catching pieces from Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. They include:
SEE ALSO
A limited-edition Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Bag, estimated at S$12,000 to S$16,000;A customised Louis Vuitton jewellery trunk painted with floral and Eiffel Tower motifs; andA Mini Lady Dior in matte white Himalaya Niloticus crocodile.The collection is not, however, confined to trophy pieces. Some Chanel costume jewellery and accessories in the first sale carry estimates of just a few hundred dollars.
“I think people will be quite surprised that actually some pieces are quite accessible,” says Elton.
Future sales will include a “grail-watch”, the Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon in platinum. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ The September auctions are only the opening act: Hotlotz plans 15 sales through May 2027, with later instalments devoted to Hermes handbags and watches from makers including Patek Philippe, Richard Mille and Rolex.
Among the rare and highly coveted timepieces are Richard Mille RM 07-02 Automatic Pink Sapphire, Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon in platinum, and Patek Philippe Nautilus Perpetual Calendar in white gold. Their estimates have not been revealed.
Another rare timepiece up for auction is the Richard Mille RM 07-02 Automatic in pink sapphire. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Catalogues for the first two sales will be published at 10 am on Sep 7, when bidding begins. The handbag auction closes on Sep 20, while the first jewellery auction ends on Sep 27.
Bidding will take place entirely online and will be open internationally. Participants must register for each auction and undergo identity verification. Approved bidders will also be able to book limited appointments to inspect the goods at Le Freeport in Singapore.
Hotlotz says that its estimates are benchmarked against comparable international auction results rather than original retail prices. Condition, scarcity and completeness – whether a piece still has its box, receipt, dust bag or other accompanying material – can all affect value.
This Mini Lady Dior, created in collaboration with artist Judy Chicago, is valued at S$4,000 to S$5,000. PHOTO: HOTLOTZ Designer goods aside, more than 80 real estate properties are also due to be offered progressively between September 2026 and mid-2027.
SRI, Edmund Tie & Company and Knight Frank have been appointed to conduct the property auctions, while selected properties will be marketed by List International Realty through an expression-of-interest process.
Which properties appear in each phase – and when – has yet to be disclosed. Details on auction schedules, viewing arrangements and bidding procedures will be released later by the respective agencies.
Deloitte says the number and composition of assets in each phase are still being finalised and could change as authentication and other preparatory work is completed.
The firm has cautioned members of the public to participate only through auctions and sales processes conducted by, or officially linked to, the appointed agencies.
Welcome back to Pursuits Weekly! Thu-Huong Ha in Tokyo joins Annika Inampudi in New York to pay respects to two titans of culture, as well as provide you with news and recommendations around travel, dining and art. Sign up here to get this newsletter every Saturday in your inbox.
During their lives, Dolly Parton and Yayoi Kusama didn’t frequently appear on the page together. The American country musician, who died this week, and the Japanese contemporary artist, whose death was announced a day later, did share the honor of breaking global records as women in male-dominated fields. That, and they both had great wigs.
Nearly 470,000 visitors made the exhibition the biggest success in Museum Ludwig's history. The Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Museum Ludwig in Cologne has become the most visited show in the museum's 50-year history, attracting nearly 470,000 visitors.
On its final days, the museum extended opening hours into the early morning to accommodate long queues of visitors eager to experience the Japanese artist's colourful installations and iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms.
The exhibition features around 300 works, ranging from Kusama's childhood drawings to her latest installations. It has surpassed the previous attendance record set by the Edward Hopper exhibition in 2004–2005.
Following its record-breaking run in Cologne, the exhibition will travel to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where it is scheduled to open in mid-September.
The Shiba Inu community has taken notice as Shytoshi Kusama, the prominent lead ambassador for the $SHIB project, has remained silent on X for 74 days, marking one of his longest periods of social media inactivity to date.
Kusama’s prolonged absence and project focusKusama has historically engaged with Shiba Inu supporters through regular updates, hints in his bio, and even live broadcasts on X, which has served as his main platform to communicate developments related to the popular memecoin.
His current silence began on May 13, when he stopped posting or interacting on X. Previous stretches of minimal online presence were seen in late 2025 and into 2026, indicating a pattern of stepping back from the public spotlight periodically.
In January, Kusama attributed his lower profile to developing an independent artificial intelligence initiative, revealing some progress on that project as his primary focus at the time.
Despite Kusama’s absence, there is heightened speculation within the Shiba Inu community that an update or announcement may soon follow, citing his past tendency to return with fresh information after a hiatus. As of now, however, there is no official indication that a major update is imminent.
Mini dictionary: Shytoshi Kusama is the pseudonymous lead ambassador and spokesperson for the Shiba Inu ecosystem. He often represents community interests and is seen as the unofficial public face for development updates and communications.
While Kusama remains inactive, community-powered SHIB burn campaigns have continued. On-chain tracker Shibburn reports that 7.15 million SHIB tokens were burned in the last 24 hours, marking a 66% increase in the daily burn rate.
Over the past seven days, 60.58 million SHIB were burned, bringing the 30-day total to 288.61 million. Robinhood, a major U.S.-based trading platform, led monthly burn efforts by sending 152,792,823 SHIB to so-called dead wallets across 106 separate transactions.
PeriodSHIB BurnedMain BurnerTransactions24 hours7.15 millionCommunity–7 days60.58 millionCommunity–30 days288.61 millionRobinhood106Total SHIB burned to date has reached 410,840,455,020,349 tokens, completed in 21,280 individual transactions. A notable contribution came from Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who destroyed 410 trillion SHIB in May 2021, significantly reducing circulating supply.
Even in the absence of leadership updates, the Shiba Inu community has maintained active burn efforts, with millions of SHIB removed from circulation weekly and major platforms like Robinhood participating in sizeable burn transactions.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
The mysterious Shiba Inu lead known under the pseudonym Shytoshi Kusama has published zero posts on his official X account.
The last post came out Aug. 5, and it was dedicated to SHIB’s anniversary and elections designed to bring “full decentralization” to the Shiba Inu network. However, even though Kusama remains silent, the community does not seem to be worried about it. That’s probably because Kusama had already disappeared a few times earlier this year from public space, as he was busy working on Shibarium. But haters and fudders continue to attack both the SHIB team and Kusama in person.
SHIB’s top executive, known as Lucie, has weighed in to defend Kusama.
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SHIB's exec defends Kusama from SHIB hatersIn a recent tweet, Lucie mentioned the upcoming reload of the LEASH token as the SHIB team plans to launch the second version of it. The problem, as Lucie described it, was that neither she nor 30,000 users were aware of the rebase mechanism in the LEASH contract.
LEASH holders will soon receive new tokens in exchange for old ones. While announcing it, Lucie lambasted fudders and haters who have been attacking the SHIB team to promote their own tokens running on Shibarium.
Lucie stated that they may continue to attack her or Shytoshi Kusama but she will not allow them to “scam and damage more investors.”
“All these delistings, hacks, and scams you are responsible for will eventually be discovered,” Lucie added.
I don’t care when you attack me, Shytoshi, or the team but I won’t let you scam and damage more investors.
All these delistings, hacks, and scams you are responsible for will eventually be discovered.
— 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐄 (@LucieSHIB) September 3, 2025 3 out of 10 largest SHIB wallets revealedAddressing the SHIB army in another tweet, Lucie also spoke about the largest holders of Shiba Inu tokens — exchanges and retail holders, and their geolocation.
According to Lucie, among the biggest SHIB holders are crypto exchanges — Binance, Robinhood and Crypto.com. They “hold tens of trillions of SHIB on behalf of millions of users.”
SHIB = Exchanges + People
•Exchanges: Major wallets like Robinhood, Binance, https://t.co/cHdxcXPUYV, and others hold tens of trillions of SHIB on behalf of millions of users. These exchange wallets make up several of the top-10 holders.
•People: Over 1.5 million individual…
— 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐄 (@LucieSHIB) September 3, 2025 As for retail holders, the majority of roughly 1.5 million individual SHIB wallets on Ethereum are based in the USA, Turkey, India, East Asia as well as Europe, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia.
PANews reported on September 8th that Coinbase Assets announced on the X platform that the Polkadot and Kusama networks are transitioning from the current Relay Chain networks to the Asset Hub network. Coinbase will support this migration, and users of KSM and DOT tokens from the Relay Chain networks will be automatically migrated to the Asset Hub network. Kusama is expected to upgrade on October 7, 2025, and Polkadot on November 4, 2025. Prior to the migration: Kusama's send and receive functions will be temporarily disabled from October 6th to 8th; Polkadot's send and receive functions will be disabled from November 3rd to 5th; and Polkadot's staking and unstaking functions will be disabled from November 3rd to 5th.
Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama has issued a statement addressing community concerns about his whereabouts, reaffirming his continued commitment to the project.
Recently, questions about Kusama’s whereabouts have grown louder within the community following his silence on social media.
The Shiba Inu lead developer has been inactive on X in recent times. His last post, before yesterday, came on August 5, when he announced plans for an ecosystem election. However, he has remained silent ever since.
Frustrated by the lackluster performance of ecosystem tokens, some Shiba Inu community members have suggested that the project has been abandoned in favor of other initiatives. These concerns intensified after the Shibarium Bridge experienced a hack that led to the loss of nearly $3 million in SHIB and ETH.
Kusama Reaffirms Commitment to Broader Shiba Inu Project In reaction, Kusama confirmed that his focus has expanded beyond SHIB. According to him, he is now pursuing artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that could benefit all Shiba Inu ecosystem tokens, including BONE and TREAT.
He dismissed speculations about distancing himself from the core team, calling them “utterly preposterous”. Notably, Kusama emphasized that he has been collaborating with other Shiba Inu developers, such as Kaal Dhairya, to determine the next steps for the project.
Acknowledging the complexity of the AI initiative, the developer noted that he prefers not to speak prematurely until he fully understands it. However, he reassured the community that the team is currently exploring the project in what he described as “the war room.”
In the meantime, he thanked Shiba Inu community members for their patience and understanding, promising that more detailed updates would be communicated through Shiba Inu’s official channels in due course.
Kusama’s AI Focus Since May, Kusama has been exploring artificial intelligence, aiming to position Shiba Inu to benefit from what he believes will be the next major wave of technological evolution driven by AI.
At the time, he updated the community about his progress through his X location marker. One of the updates suggested that he was writing a final paper on AI and would also highlight the role of the Shiba Inu in this technological evolution.
Interestingly, he wittily renamed the month of July to Jul-AI, teasing that the team would share several announcements relating to its past and future endeavors. However, he has not shared much about the AI project.
Kusama’s First Update After Latest Security Breach Notably, Kusama’s latest post marks his first update since the Shibarium Bridge suffered a major security breach. That incident resulted in losses totaling nearly $3 million.
While concerns about Shibarium’s security remain unaddressed, Kusama chose instead to stress his focus on developing AI initiatives aimed at advancing all Shiba Inu ecosystem tokens.
The fact that Shytoshi Kusama, Shiba Inu’s lead figure, continues to hide his face and real identity remains a major concern for the SHIB community. While anonymity is common in crypto, many investors fear it creates uncertainty and accountability issues, especially as Shiba Inu evolves into a broader ecosystem.
Holders worry that a hidden identity could impact trust, transparency, and long-term credibility, leaving the project vulnerable to skepticism from regulators, institutions, and mainstream investors.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Kusama promised further information on the matter on Shiba Inu's official channels.
TL;DR
Despite shifting priorities toward other initiatives, Shytoshi Kusama assured the SHIB Army that they remain committed to the meme coin project. Earlier this summer, the developer emphasized that Shiba Inu’s future now rests with the community, outlining plans for fair elections to appoint an interim president who will oversee the ecosystem’s growth. Kusama Remains in ‘The War Room’ Shytoshi Kusama – the anonymous lead developer of Shiba Inu – has limited their interactions on the social media platform X lately. Earlier this week, though, they broke the silence on a matter that seems to be concerning for the SHIB community.
Kusama has previously stated that they will switch their focus outside the meme coin to push for AI initiatives “to better all our tokens.” However, that doesn’t mean they have abandoned the self-proclaimed Dogecoin-killer.
“To suggest that I am anywhere except beside Kaal Dhairyia, the devs and other appropriate parties figuring out next steps is utterly preposterous,” the announcement reads.
In addition, Kusama said the current situation is “a bit complex and deep,” but assured that they remain in “the war room.” The lead developer also promised that further details on the matter will be shared on Shiba Inu’s official channels.
The Whole Saga With Kusama Shiba Inu saw the light of day in the summer of 2020 and over the past five years has expanded its ecosystem and blasted through major milestones. Its creator, Ryoshi, deliberately stepped away after setting the foundation of the project, with Kusama emerging as the lead developer and main public voice.
Earlier this year, the latter said they will step down from their role, mostly because “there is no more vision needed, only execution and communications.” Instead, Kusama revealed plans to become Shiba Inu’s global ambassador to drive mainstream adoption of the world’s second-largest meme token.
A few months ago, Kusama disclosed that the project will have an interim president who will be chosen after “fair elections,” and the voting will go through three sessions.
You may also like: Whales Can’t Get Enough of Meme Coins as FLOKI Explodes 950% DOGE, SHIB, PEPE Explode: Is Meme Coin Frenzy Back in Full Force? “The first allows for anyone to be nominated, while the top 10 move onto the debate phase. Debates will take place LIVE or recorded on various platforms and times, while a secondary vote to find the top 3 will take place after one week,” the announcement reads.
Any community member can nominate themselves for the position and will be required to create a profile to give some details about who they are. The main goal of the appointed president will be to maintain the well-being of the entire ecosystem and oversee the proper execution of the Shib Paper guidelines.
Kusama said their leadership is in the hands of the SHIB Army, ensuring that they will remain committed to posting information on the election date and related updates.
“We will continue working on innovation, and closely with the Treat Dao and strategies therein, and will continue pursuits outside of SHIB that align with our vision and often contribute to the ecosystem or DAOs. In this way, we continue as valued Shibizens of a system we helped build from nothing,” the developer added.
PANews x BeWater co-produced: After the cold start, how do Web3 entrepreneurs solve the user growth problem of "1 to 100"? This special topic will include expert opinions, successful experiences and market research reports, etc., to provide Web3 entrepreneurs with a clear growth guide.
Kusama Asset Hub migration is now supported within the SafePal wallet suite.With the latest SafePal wallet app V4.10.3 update, users can now store, send, and receive Kusama assets on the SafePal mobile app and hardware wallet, with browser extension support to follow in a few days.
Note: Users only need to update to the latest SafePal app version (V4.10.3 and above) and the upcoming version update for the browser extension, followed by the addition of the new chain as described in the tutorial here to view and manage their Kusama assets.
More information about the migration itself can be found here.
About Kusama:
Kusama is a public, pre-production environment and a "canary network" for its sister network, Polkadot. Built by the same team, it allows developers to test new features, applications, and updates in a real-world environment with lower risks before deploying them on Polkadot.
Kusama has a more experimental and flexible environment with less stringent governance than Polkadot. The native token, KSM, is used for governance, staking, and transaction fees.
About SafePal:
Founded in 2018, SafePal is a next generation non-custodial crypto wallet suite backed by Animoca Brands, Binance and Superscrypt. The suite empowers access to decentralized and centralized finance on 200+ blockchains across its hardware, software, and browser extension wallet solutions.
Encompassing a diverse mix of crypto asset management solutions like cross-chain swapping, trading and yielding tools, centralized exchange (CEX) mini programs, a banking gateway and Mastercard for users — SafePal serves over 25 million users globally across 200+ regions and countries in 16 languages.
SFP is a decentralized BEP-20 and ERC-20 token fuelling the SafePal ecosystem with various utilities such as discounts on SafePal products, staking boost and airdrop rewards, seamless conversion to gas tokens, and more.
Shytoshi Kusama, a prominent figure in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, has not posted on the X platform since September 15. This extended silence is particularly notable given recent technical issues and security concerns within the ecosystem.
Silence Amidst Turmoil in ShibariumA rebase error in the LEASH token and an exploit attempt on the Shibarium bridge have heightened community worries. In the latest developments, the hacker who targeted the Shibarium bridge rejected an offered bounty, while Shima from K9 Finance publicly shared the hacker’s trail. Kusama’s continued silence during these tumultuous events has fueled further questions within the community.
In his last statement on X, Kusama emphasized that his silence is not an absence. He affirmed his ongoing collaboration with the Shiba Inu team, citing a focus on advancing artificial intelligence projects. Following an AI-focused technical document released at the end of July, Kusama limited his social media presence, opting instead to update his status and biography without providing further explanation.
December’s Familiar Pattern: Will History Repeat?Historically, December has been a period of increased activity for Kusama. The “Shy Speaks” podcast series, released towards the end of 2024, provided significant insights into the philosophy, technology, and future of Shiba Inu.
In December 2023, his posts highlighting developments in Shibarium garnered significant attention, sharing expectations for the new year with the community. This pattern has led many investors and SHIB community members to closely monitor December for potential developments.
This year, however, is different. With the first six days of December 2025 already past, Kusama remains silent. The cause is again attributed to an intense focus on personal AI projects. Still, the pressing question remains: Will Kusama make a surprise announcement in December, or will his silence extend into 2026?
Amid these discussions, another significant development occurred in the SHIB ecosystem. Last week, the testnet phase for a new version of ShibaSwap was announced. The community hopes Shibaswap 2.0 will increase trading volume and user engagement, heightening the expectation of a potential December announcement from Kusama.
In conclusion, it remains uncertain whether Shytoshi Kusama’s silence is merely a break from social media or a precursor to a major transformation. Considering Shibarium, ShibaSwap, and AI projects within the ecosystem, December has typically been a month for critical announcements. Thus, the community is sharply attuned to any potential declarations in the coming weeks.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama resurfaced on X this week after an 84-day absence.
His return coincided with an increase in large SHIB transactions, which rose to their highest levels since June, according to on-chain data.
Kusama Ends Nearly Three Months of Silence Kusama’s last public post came on September 16, when he said he was shifting his focus toward AI-related projects aimed at strengthening the Shiba Inu ecosystem. At the time, he stressed that he continued to work closely with developer Kaal Dhairya and others on the project’s next steps.
His renewed activity on December 8 included several interactions with community posts. In these exchanges, he suggested he stepped back to find “silence and peace” and invest in personal development.
Kusama also said it felt like an appropriate moment to speak again, though he hinted at some hesitation.
Good time to speak up then eh… *clears throat* https://t.co/xTdI2MnUyc
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) December 8, 2025
Updated X Location Draws Community Attention Adding to the renewed attention, Kusama updated his X location. The shift from “Hawaii USA” to “reemerging” immediately caught the eye of SHIB followers. Although the new tag does not refer to any physical place, it implies a return to the spotlight.
This subtle change has prompted speculations that more developments may follow within the SHIB ecosystem.
Shiba Inu Whale Transfers Surge to Highest Level Since June Kusama’s return unfolded alongside an upswing in whale movements. According to Santiment, SHIB logged its highest number of large transactions in six months. The analytics platform recorded 406 transfers exceeding $100,000, a volume last seen on June 6.
Santiment also identified a 1.06 trillion increase in SHIB held on exchanges. The firm suggested that this mix of whale activity and broader market trends could set the stage for heightened volatility in the short term.
These whale movements caught Kusama’s attention, expressing curiosity.
Hmmm… *pops chewing gum* https://t.co/CF5PJv1LnD
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) December 8, 2025
Market Snapshot At the time of reporting, SHIB traded at $0.000008342. The token was down 3.07% over the previous 24 hours and 5.51% for the week, adding context to the shifts in market behavior.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
TLDR: Web3 Foundation has closed its General Grants Program, Decentralized Voices, and several other key initiatives. W3F is now focused on two pillars: global Web3 evangelism and responsible long-term asset management. Polkadot’s next development phase is being led by Parity Technologies and its broader builder community. On-chain treasury and governance tools remain active, ensuring decentralized funding continues without W3F oversight. Web3 Foundation has announced a major strategic realignment, stepping back from its hands-on operational role.
The organization is returning to its founding purpose: championing decentralized web technologies on a global scale.
For years, W3F actively helped bootstrap networks like Polkadot and Kusama into functioning, community-driven ecosystems.
As those networks have now reached a level of maturity, the Foundation is refocusing its priorities. It will concentrate on global advocacy and disciplined long-term asset management.
Concluded Programs Mark a Shift in the Foundation’s Operational Direction Web3 Foundation has already closed several key programs as part of this transition. These include the General Grants Program, Support, Decentralized Voices, and Decentralized Nodes.
Each of these programs played a distinct role during the ecosystem’s early growth stages. Their conclusion marks a clear shift in how W3F operates.
Returning to its roots.
The Web3 Foundation is entering a new chapter by narrowing its operational scope and returning to its founding mission of stewarding and accelerating the technologies that enable the decentralized web on a global scale.
Read more about it here:… pic.twitter.com/6gFpvkRW5T
— Web3 Foundation (@Web3foundation) March 5, 2026
Over the past year, W3F undertook a thorough review of its programs and spending. Several resource-heavy bounties were closed, and spending was carefully audited throughout this period.
Clearer documentation and operational guidelines were established based on lessons learned along the way.
Moreover, several additional initiatives are being evaluated for transition to external teams. These include the JAM Prize, Polkadot Governance Support, the Polkadot Wiki, and developer documentation.
The Knowledge Base and Kusama Vision are also among the programs being considered for handover.
Despite these changes, decentralized funding mechanisms remain fully active within the ecosystem. Communities still have direct access to on-chain governance and treasury tools for funding initiatives. These pathways continue to support innovation without requiring centralized oversight from the Foundation.
Two Core Priorities Will Define the Foundation’s Long-Term Strategy Web3 Foundation is now centering its work around two clear pillars going forward. The first involves evangelizing and advancing the decentralized web on a global scale. The second focuses on safeguarding the Foundation’s assets in alignment with its broader Web3 mission.
At the same time, Polkadot is entering a phase focused on building products with real-world utility. Parity Technologies and a wider community of builders are now driving this development stage. The Foundation’s reduced operational role is designed to complement, rather than direct, this effort.
This transition also reflects how blockchain ecosystems naturally evolve over time. As networks become self-sustaining, support structures around them must adapt accordingly.
W3F is repositioning itself as a long-term steward rather than a day-to-day operational body. This approach allows the Foundation to focus on higher-level advocacy work.
Furthermore, this realignment places greater emphasis on disciplined asset allocation going forward. Resources will be directed toward efforts with the greatest global impact.
Through advocacy and financial stewardship, the Foundation aims to strengthen the Web3 ecosystem for years to come.
PANews reported on March 7th that the Web3 Foundation announced a strategic shift, returning to its core mission of promoting and managing Web3 resources, supporting community, governance, and technological infrastructure, and focusing more on its long-term vision and resource management. Based on this strategic shift, the Web3 Foundation will transfer several projects and initiatives, including the JAM Prize, Polkadot governance support, the Polkadot Wiki, the knowledge base, Kusama Vision, and developer documentation, to other teams and organizations to ensure long-term impact and a healthy ecosystem.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) leaves a closed-door meeting with the president and GOP senators on Wednesday. (AP)
Gen. Christopher Donahue, left, at a media event in Poland in 2022. (AP)
(AFP/Getty Images)(Emma Kumer/The Post; iStock)
Preparations this week for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. (Al Drago for The Post)
Price and Cincinati on the day they got engaged, June 3, in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. (Amanda Price)
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COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — A mirror room dappled with colored dots. Contorted, bright sculptures of flowers on a rooftop at the foot of Cologne’s famed cathedral. A vast showroom with giant octopus-like tentacles that offer up a mesmerizing meander through space and obstacles.
The renowned Museum Ludwig in the western German city is celebrating its 50th anniversary by opening a nearly five-month exhibit on Saturday, with more than 300 works of the famed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
The trek through the time and transformation of the now nonagenarian artist assembles works ranging from her first drawing in the mid-1930s to a newly commissioned “Infinity Mirror Room” made for the show.
Kusama, who turns 97 this month, has become a social media sensation with her use of bright colors and oozy shapes that reflect her feeling of awe about life. Her own life carried her from patriarchal postwar Japan to New York to the Flower Power and anti-Vietnam war movements in the 1960s. She returned home to Japan in 1973.
Curator Stephan Diederich says the exhibit, which runs through Aug. 2, is “very diverse, wide-ranging, and depicts an immensely rich, creative life spanning more than eight decades, still looking ahead.”
Works include her series “My Eternal Soul, 2009-2021,” including a patchwork of paintings, to “The Universe as Seen from the Stairway to Heaven” — made of mirror, glass and acrylic sheet. The museum entrance hosts her widely-recognized 2009 “Pumpkin” of fiber-reinforced plastic and polyurethane paint, belonging to Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands.
The rooftop display features painted-bronze sculptures “Flowers That Speak All about My Heart Given to the Sky” from 2018, and “I’m Here, but Nothing,” whose origins date back to 2000, involves fluorescent stickers and ultraviolet fluorescent lights illuminating a room of household objects.
“Kusama is undoubtedly one of the most significant artists of our time,” he said. “Her mirror rooms, balloon installations and polka dots have achieved cult status and are now iconic.”
Her multifaceted works often relate to the world of nature. She grew up in the greenhouses and fields of her family’s enormous seed nursery in Matsumoto, Japan. When Kusama was young, she began having vivid hallucinations, some of which involved polka dots or flowers spreading around her. She has fought through existential anxieties.
“In my more than 70 years as an artist, I have always been in awe of the wonder of life,” she said in a statement. “More than anything, this strong sense of the life force in artistic expression is what has supported me and gave me power to overcome feelings of depression, hopelessness and sadness.
“I have been guided by my belief in this power,” Kusama said.
Diederich said that Kusama has been living in relative seclusion in a Tokyo clinic for years, and communicated “indirectly” with the curatorial team. She still works every day, “as far as her health allows” and has taken an active interest in the show, he said.
Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan's foremost contemporary artists. She's known for her Instagramable "Infinity Rooms" — immersive installations that use mirrors, lights and reflective surfaces to create the illusion of endless space — as well as her large-scale polka dot sculptures. While her works often appear playful, behind them lies the story of a woman who has faced major social and mental health challenges.
Around the age of 10, Yayoi Kusama began experiencing hallucinations, seeing dots and net patterns enveloping everything in her mind's eye. She has attributed these early visions to the psychological strain of growing up with an unloving mother, who forbade her from painting and tried to impose traditional expectations on her behavior.
Although she continues to experience hallucinations, Kusama has learned to live with them and channel them into her art. "My artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease," Kusama once told US arts publication Bomb Magazine.
After attending the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama held her first exhibitions in her hometown of Matsumoto. She was unusually open about her mental health at a time when such topics were heavily stigmatized. "It was extraordinary that she addressed it so openly," said Stephan Diederich, curator of the Kusama retrospective at Cologne's Museum Ludwig, which is on show until August 2, 2026.
"For her, art was a survival strategy and a form of therapy, which she always made clear without making it the main focus," Diederich told DW.
The Hong Kong exhibition 'Dots Obsession' at M+ Museum was a hit with fans of all agesImage: Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA/picture alliance Kusama's escape to New York For Kusama, who was born on March 22, 1929, life in Japan soon became too stifling.
"[My parents] were always trying to rope me into arranged marriages with men I'd never met who came from very particular families," Yayoi once told writer Andrew Solomon, referring to her early 20s as "my era of mental breakdown." She increasingly felt like "a prisoner surrounded by a curtain of depersonalization."
Finally, she broke free from the conventions and expectations of postwar Japan and moved to New York in 1958. "She was exceptionally self-confident and determined to go her own way and pursue a career," said Diederich. Kusama's mother provided her with financial support to get started — on the condition that she never return to Japan.
Fellow artist Georgia O'Keeffe, to whom Kusama had previously sent a selection of her works, helped her gain a foothold in the US.
Kusama often spent entire days working and produced a vast body of art. She became part of the New York avant-garde scene, where her meticulous "Infinity Net" paintings drew attention for their hypnotic, repetitive patterns.
Her works, including soft, often phallic fabric sculptures, paralleled some of the approaches of contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.
"She was very confident in saying that she set the benchmarks that her male colleagues later drew on," explained Diederich. However, he added, it's impossible to determine definitively who was first.
Kusama's 'Infinity Nets' have been on display all over the world, including in a 2021 exhibition in Tel AvivImage: Debbie Hill/UPI Photo/newscom/picture alliance In any case, her male fellow artists were more commercially successful than the young Asian woman, contributing to her attempted suicide, which she fortunately survived. Kusama made a statement about the gender pay gap with her sculpture "Traveling Life" (1964), which features a ladder covered in phallic shapes with women's shoes on the steps. Phalluses are another recurring motif Kusama used to process her "fear of sex as something dirty," as she wrote in her 2022 autobiography.
Returning to the universe through self-obliteration In the 1960s, Kusama held "happenings" as protests against the Vietnam War. They were often provocative, sometimes involving nudity and sexual activity, although Kusama often noted that she didn't personally participate in the sexual aspects of these events.
"Why should people who share pleasure with each other go to war and kill others? Through free sex, the wall between me and others can be torn down," Kusama wrote in her autobiography.
She was known for painting nude female and male bodies with dots, with the aim of erasing the individuality of those painted. She calls this "self-obliteration," and it runs through her entire body of work. "By obliterating one's self, you return to the infinite universe," Kusama once said.
In 1966, Kusama staged her work "Narcissus Garden" at the Venice Biennale. She placed 1,500 mirrored spheres on the lawn outside the entrance of the Venice Biennale, which she hadn't been invited to, and attempted to sell them for $2 each. Biennale officials eventually intervened and stopped the sale, but the work still served as a pointed critique of the commercialization of the art world and the role of artists in it.
Kusama's 'Infinity Room' exhibition in London in 2024 asked viewers to have an existential experienceImage: Justin Ng/Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance Fame later in life In 1993, Kusama returned to the Venice Biennale as an officially invited artist, representing Japan.
She later told the Financial Times that she wanted "to become more famous, even more famous," a remark that reflects how important recognition had become in her career and one that some commentators critiqued as overly focused on fame.
An 'Infinity Mirrored Room' in a 2026 exhibition in Basel features inflatable elementsImage: Stefan Boness/Ipon/picture alliance Today, she could hardly be more famous: in 2018, The Broad museum in Los Angeles quickly sold 90,000 advance tickets for a Kusama exhibition. A yearlong show at London's Tate Modern in 2022 sold out in no time, as did the one-year extension. Her artworks now fetch millions at auction.
Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 and chose to live in a psychiatric clinic in Tokyo, where she continues to receive treatment for her mental health. She remains highly productive, creating paintings, sculptures, installations and other works that are exhibited around the world.
"I will continue to create artwork as long as my passion keeps me doing so. I am deeply moved that so many people have been my fans," she said. "I suppose I would not be able to know how people would evaluate my art until after I die. I create art for the healing of all mankind."
The Museum Ludwig in Cologne is showing the retrospective "Yayoi Kusama" until August 2, 2026.
Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan's foremost contemporary artists. She's known for her Instagramable "Infinity Rooms" — immersive installations that use mirrors, lights and reflective surfaces to create the illusion of endless space — as well as her large-scale polka dot sculptures. While her works often appear playful, behind them lies the story of a woman who has faced major social and mental health challenges.
Around the age of 10, Yayoi Kusama began experiencing hallucinations, seeing dots and net patterns enveloping everything in her mind's eye. She has attributed these early visions to the psychological strain of growing up with an unloving mother, who forbade her from painting and tried to impose traditional expectations on her behavior.
Although she continues to experience hallucinations, Kusama has learned to live with them and channel them into her art. "My artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease," Kusama once told US arts publication Bomb Magazine.
After attending the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama held her first exhibitions in her hometown of Matsumoto. She was unusually open about her mental health at a time when such topics were heavily stigmatized. "It was extraordinary that she addressed it so openly," said Stephan Diederich, curator of the Kusama retrospective at Cologne's Museum Ludwig, which is on show until August 2, 2026.
"For her, art was a survival strategy and a form of therapy, which she always made clear without making it the main focus," Diederich told DW.
The Hong Kong exhibition 'Dots Obsession' at M+ Museum was a hit with fans of all agesImage: Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA/picture alliance Kusama's escape to New York For Kusama, who was born on March 22, 1929, life in Japan soon became too stifling.
"[My parents] were always trying to rope me into arranged marriages with men I'd never met who came from very particular families," Yayoi once told writer Andrew Solomon, referring to her early 20s as "my era of mental breakdown." She increasingly felt like "a prisoner surrounded by a curtain of depersonalization."
Finally, she broke free from the conventions and expectations of postwar Japan and moved to New York in 1958. "She was exceptionally self-confident and determined to go her own way and pursue a career," said Diederich. Kusama's mother provided her with financial support to get started — on the condition that she never return to Japan.
Fellow artist Georgia O'Keeffe, to whom Kusama had previously sent a selection of her works, helped her gain a foothold in the US.
Kusama often spent entire days working and produced a vast body of art. She became part of the New York avant-garde scene, where her meticulous "Infinity Net" paintings drew attention for their hypnotic, repetitive patterns.
Her works, including soft, often phallic fabric sculptures, paralleled some of the approaches of contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.
"She was very confident in saying that she set the benchmarks that her male colleagues later drew on," explained Diederich. However, he added, it's impossible to determine definitively who was first.
Kusama's 'Infinity Nets' have been on display all over the world, including in a 2021 exhibition in Tel AvivImage: Debbie Hill/UPI Photo/newscom/picture alliance In any case, her male fellow artists were more commercially successful than the young Asian woman, contributing to her attempted suicide, which she fortunately survived. Kusama made a statement about the gender pay gap with her sculpture "Traveling Life" (1964), which features a ladder covered in phallic shapes with women's shoes on the steps. Phalluses are another recurring motif Kusama used to process her "fear of sex as something dirty," as she wrote in her 2022 autobiography.
Returning to the universe through self-obliteration In the 1960s, Kusama held "happenings" as protests against the Vietnam War. They were often provocative, sometimes involving nudity and sexual activity, although Kusama often noted that she didn't personally participate in the sexual aspects of these events.
"Why should people who share pleasure with each other go to war and kill others? Through free sex, the wall between me and others can be torn down," Kusama wrote in her autobiography.
She was known for painting nude female and male bodies with dots, with the aim of erasing the individuality of those painted. She calls this "self-obliteration," and it runs through her entire body of work. "By obliterating one's self, you return to the infinite universe," Kusama once said.
In 1966, Kusama staged her work "Narcissus Garden" at the Venice Biennale. She placed 1,500 mirrored spheres on the lawn outside the entrance of the Venice Biennale, which she hadn't been invited to, and attempted to sell them for $2 each. Biennale officials eventually intervened and stopped the sale, but the work still served as a pointed critique of the commercialization of the art world and the role of artists in it.
Kusama's 'Infinity Room' exhibition in London in 2024 asked viewers to have an existential experienceImage: Justin Ng/Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance Fame later in life In 1993, Kusama returned to the Venice Biennale as an officially invited artist, representing Japan.
She later told the Financial Times that she wanted "to become more famous, even more famous," a remark that reflects how important recognition had become in her career and one that some commentators critiqued as overly focused on fame.
An 'Infinity Mirrored Room' in a 2026 exhibition in Basel features inflatable elementsImage: Stefan Boness/Ipon/picture alliance Today, she could hardly be more famous: in 2018, The Broad museum in Los Angeles quickly sold 90,000 advance tickets for a Kusama exhibition. A yearlong show at London's Tate Modern in 2022 sold out in no time, as did the one-year extension. Her artworks now fetch millions at auction.
Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 and chose to live in a psychiatric clinic in Tokyo, where she continues to receive treatment for her mental health. She remains highly productive, creating paintings, sculptures, installations and other works that are exhibited around the world.
"I will continue to create artwork as long as my passion keeps me doing so. I am deeply moved that so many people have been my fans," she said. "I suppose I would not be able to know how people would evaluate my art until after I die. I create art for the healing of all mankind."
The Museum Ludwig in Cologne is showing the retrospective "Yayoi Kusama" until August 2, 2026.
The Shiba Inu ecosystem has once again become the center of attention following the return of one of its key community leaders, Shytoshi Kusama, to the social media platform X. After a nearly two-week hiatus, Kusama reignited interest and speculation about the project’s future direction with his latest remarks and updates to his profile. This move has led to fresh debate among Shiba Inu supporters and market watchers about possible new projects and strategic shifts in the near term.
All eyes on Shiba Inu as Kusama reappearsAs a prominent figure and strategic voice in the Shiba Inu community, Shytoshi Kusama plays a vital role in setting the project’s roadmap. Kusama broke his silence after 13 days, having been inactive since April 9, by re-engaging on X. He drew attention by replying to a message about erasing the past and also announced a major community event scheduled for Saturday. By updating his profile and biography, Kusama hinted at the beginning of a new phase for the Shiba Inu project.
“A date has been set: Saturday. Let us set an appointment using only evidence within holy texts; see you at the start of the next phase,” Kusama invited the community to the upcoming event, after earlier signaling technological advancements and bringing ethical debates to the table.
With these words, Kusama rallied the community to the anticipated gathering. In previous statements, he also hinted at a renewed focus on technological innovation as well as ethical discussions shaping the project’s roadmap.
Price swings and key indicators for SHIBAccording to data from CryptoAppsy, SHIB’s price dipped by 1.8 percent within the last 24 hours, falling to $0.000006235. This correction follows a three-day rally that began on April 20. During that uptrend, SHIB rebounded from $0.00000589 to peak at $0.00000629 on April 22 but ran into resistance at that level.
Short-term movements reveal a resistance point forming around $0.00000629. Open interest in SHIB futures dropped by 11 percent in the past 24 hours, reaching $58.99 million. This decline signals a brief cool-off in derivatives market activity. Investors are closely watching to see if SHIB can sustain itself above the $0.00000629 mark for ongoing upward momentum.
On daily charts, support near the 50-day moving average at $0.0000059 is seen as a pivotal short-term threshold. Market analysts suggest that if this support holds, the next targets could be $0.0000076 and potentially $0.000008. However, if SHIB loses strength at these levels, sideways trading and a period of consolidation may follow.
Market uncertainty persistsThe latest shifts in Shiba Inu’s price are mirroring broader trends in market liquidity and the overall behavior of meme coins. On-chain indicators and positioning in the derivatives market now serve as important drivers for SHIB’s direction. The heightened community engagement around the upcoming event is expected to keep short-term volatility elevated.
While the community eagerly awaits further developments, many traders remain focused on short-term price action and key technical levels as the signals for Shiba Inu’s next move.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Shytoshi Kusama, a leading figure in the Shiba Inu ecosystem, continues to maintain his silence on the X platform. After recently updating his biography, Kusama has refrained from making new posts or engaging with content on the platform. This quiet period has led the SHIB community to speculate whether the lack of updates is connected to potential developments within the project.
Kusama’s latest activity on XKusama’s most recent post on X dates back to May 13, when he tagged Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya. Since then, he has not shared further statements, extending a stretch of reduced public communication that has been noted since late 2024. This ongoing silence appears to be part of a broader pattern observed in his engagement with the community.
Previously, Kusama addressed his lack of communication, emphasizing that innovation-driven work has kept him focused behind the scenes. Notably, he mentioned being involved in an independent artificial intelligence initiative. The current bio message on his X profile reflects this new focus.
Kusama’s X profile biography now reads: “Pure Focus: AI App/site: R.OS Finishing touches. Beta website complete. Final bug pass.”
Among Shiba Inu supporters, Kusama is a closely-watched figure for guidance on the project’s direction and communication. His profile location still lists previous priorities, indicating “Backlog, Marketing, Positioning” as ongoing areas of responsibility.
Glossary: A beta website is a test version of a product or site, released to a limited audience for initial feedback. A final bug pass means checking for any remaining technical issues before the site goes live.
SHIB trades sideways amid quiet periodThe current silence from the Shiba Inu leadership mirrors broader market conditions. Recent weeks have seen the meme coin segment move from sharp rallies to weaker price action and a period of accumulation. SHIB is following this trend, displaying stable movement near recent lows without major volatility.
According to the latest data, SHIB fell 0.47% in the past 24 hours to $0.000004699. The weekly loss stands at roughly 6%. Although the asset showed some gains the previous week, selling pressure dominated most of the past seven days, with prices stabilizing somewhat by the weekend.
Key support and resistance levels in focusInvestors are concentrating on clear price levels in the current trading environment. Should SHIB’s decline continue, the $0.0000043 support zone is seen as critical. On the other hand, any rebound may target resistance at $0.0000055.
Additionally, SHIB has depreciated for five consecutive days since June 16. If today also closes lower, the losing streak will extend to a sixth day. As a result, both Kusama’s communication activity and SHIB’s reaction to these technical levels remain top concerns for the community in the short term.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama has continued to maintain a low profile on X, even as broader market weakness weighs heavily on SHIB’s performance.
Kusama has remained inactive on the social media platform for more than a month. His last appearance came on May 13, when he shared an enthusiastic post and tagged fellow developer Kaal Dhairya.
At the time, many community members believed the developers were preparing to unveil a major update that could potentially support SHIB’s price. However, shortly after that post, Kusama went completely silent.
Since then, he has neither published new posts nor interacted with other X users through likes or replies.
A Familiar Pattern for the Shiba Inu Community For long-time members of the Shiba Inu community, Kusama’s absence is not unusual. The lead developer has developed a reputation for stepping away from social media for weeks or even months at a time.
One notable example occurred in December 2025, when he temporarily left X while exploring artificial intelligence (AI) solutions aimed at strengthening the broader Shiba Inu ecosystem.
He eventually returned in late January 2026 to a warm reception from community members. Since then, he has repeatedly disappeared for brief periods before resurfacing. This latest absence, however, has now stretched beyond five weeks, with no indication of when he plans to return.
AI Project Continues to Command Kusama’s Attention Meanwhile, Kusama has consistently linked his social media inactivity to his ongoing artificial intelligence initiative, which he previously described as the next phase of Shiba Inu’s evolution.
Although he initially connected the AI effort to the SHIB ecosystem, recent updates suggest the project, known as R. OS, will operate independently of Shiba Inu.
According to information in his updated bio, Kusama is currently focused on developing the project’s application. He also noted that the website’s beta version has been completed and that the final bug-testing phase has been passed.
Shiba Inu Lead X Profile The continued development of R. OS has fueled concerns among some investors who still view Kusama primarily as Shiba Inu’s lead developer.
Their concerns stem from the fact that the project is not directly designed to support core ecosystem tokens such as SHIB, BONE, LEASH, or TREAT. As a result, some community members have begun questioning whether Kusama’s priorities have shifted away from Shiba Inu altogether.
SHIB Risks Losing Top 30 Spot Kusama’s latest disappearance comes at a challenging time for SHIB. The broader cryptocurrency market has exerted significant downward pressure on the token, pushing it below the $0.000005 level in recent days. At press time, SHIB trades at $0.000004677 with a market cap of $2.75 billion.
The token has declined 32.3% since the start of the year and remains 94.73% below its all-time high of $0.00008845. As a result, SHIB now faces the risk of slipping out of the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The token currently ranks as the world’s 29th-largest cryptocurrency, while PYUSD and AVAX trail closely behind with market capitalizations of $2.74 billion and $2.72 billion, respectively.
Shiba Inu ranking on CMC DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Moonriver is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain on Kusama, designed to serve as a companion network to Moonbeam by providing a permanently incentivized canary network. New code will be sent to Moonriver for testing and verification under real economic conditions before being deployed to Moonbeam on Polkadot.
This is achieved through a full EVM implementation, a Web3 compatible API, and bridges that connect Moonriver to existing Ethereum networks.
Moonriver (MOVR) ExplainedAs a decentralized smart contract platform, Moonriver utilizes a utility token for its operation. The MOVR token is central to Moonriver’s design and is indispensable for maintaining the platform’s core functionality. The uses of the Moonriver token include:
Supporting transaction fees for smart contractsEncouraging the creation and strengthening of a decentralized node infrastructure on which the platform can operateFacilitating the on-chain governance mechanism, including proposing referendums, electing council members, and votingPaying network transaction feesIn addition, Moonriver is designed to act as a smart contract platform that allows developers to redeploy Ethereum dapps with minimal friction in a substrate environment. This means that smart contracts powering Ethereum dapps don’t need to be rewritten or reconfigured for the Karura network. Substrate is a framework for creating new blockchains and blockchain applications that can run on Kusama and Polkadot networks.
Moonriver is intended to function as a “canary network” for Moonbeam on Polkadot, which means new code will be sent to Moonriver for testing and verification under real economic conditions before being sent to Moonbeam.
The native cryptocurrency of Moonriver, MOVR, is expected to play a significant role in maintaining and operating the Moonriver network. It is anticipated to be used for paying transaction fees, supporting smart contract execution, incentivizing block production to support the network, and facilitating Moonriver’s on-chain governance mechanism.
MOVR is expected to be voted on by community members using KSM, the cryptocurrency of Kusama, in a process known as Parachain Auction to launch as a parachain on Kusama.
Insights on MOVR CoinThe MOVR coin has attracted attention, especially after being listed on Binance, considered reliable due to the platform behind it and the platforms it cooperates with. However, investors are currently closely monitoring MOVR and proceeding with caution in their transactions.
How to Purchase Moonriver Coin?MOVR Coin can be quickly and securely purchased through Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform by transaction volume.
To buy MOVR Coin, one must first sign up for Binance and then send fiat currency. After sending a fiat currency like dollars, one can buy Bitcoin (BTC), BUSD, Binance Coin (BNB), and Tether (USDT) to conduct a purchase transaction in the MOVR trading pair.
Additionally, on Binance, users can place an order to buy at not only the market price but also at a lower price. This can be done by using the Limit tab, where you enter the amount you want to buy and the price at which you want to buy.
Centralized exchange Crypto.com has announced a Shiba Inu prize pool for users, with a $250,000 reward in SHIB for select participants.
Crypto.com has launched a new event in its Airdrop Arena, an earn section on its platform that rewards participants for staking the native CRO token. This time, it involves Shiba Inu, the second-largest meme coin by market cap.
Users to Receive Shiba Inu in Prize Pool For context, Crypto.com announced in a recent tweet that it has started a new reward program, where eligible users will share $250,000 worth of Shiba Inu. The new event requires users to stake the CRO token in the Airdrop Arena to participate.
Notably, the exchange will distribute the SHIB token to the top-ranking participants on a point basis. As a result, the more CRO tokens a user allocates, the better his chances of sharing in the prize money.
Meanwhile, Crypto.com is offering early birds an advantage. It will increase the points of the first 10,000 users to allocate to the new event by 120%. Furthermore, participants who lock up to 1,500 CRO in the Airdrop Arena will also receive a daily 120% boost.
According to the announcement, the reward program will last for one month, specifically from July 5 to August 4, 2025. Seven days after the event ends, qualified users who choose the Loot Locker option will receive a share of the $250,000 Shiba Inu prize money in their wallets.
The ongoing program demonstrates Crypto.com’s long-standing support for the Shiba Inu ecosystem and its ever-faithful community. The Singapore-based exchange listed Shiba Inu in May 2021 and has held a significant amount of the tokens in its reserve over the years.
In March 2023, it listed the Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) token, further increasing the visibility of the Shiba Inu ecosystem token. CEO Kris Marszalek also applauded the support of the Shiba Army towards the exchange following the listing event.
The Shiba Inu Ecosystem Continues to Build Meanwhile, the Shiba Inu team has demonstrated a commitment to building the ecosystem, despite recent price challenges. Luice, the ecosystem’s marketing lead, has assured enthusiasts that Shiba Inu is not going anywhere, as it is not built on 5,000 to 10,000 holders.
Moreover, the Shiba Inu lead, Shytoshi Kusama, has teased major updates for July, telling enthusiasts to prepare for what is in the pipeline. Specifically, he insinuated that the updates could be from the artificial intelligence (AI) front, as he noted that “July is JUL-AI.”
Notably, Kusama has been working on an AI-driven innovation for months, an aspect he believes will shape the Shiba Inu ecosystem’s future. The community expects the release of the whitepaper this month, as he suggested, with the recent partnership with AI gaming platform TokenPlayAI teased as a party starter.
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