The Japanese artist died Aug. 14. Her 8-foot bronze Pumpkin (L) remains at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines.
By Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register
This article was originally published by the Des Moines Register and is republished by Hola America News through its media partnership.
The acclaimed Japanese avant-garde artist, Yayoi Kusama, has died. She is known for her work with vibrant polka-dots, pumpkin sculptures and infinity mirror room installations.
She died at the age of 97 on Aug. 14, according to a statement by the Yayoi Kusama Museum. Kusama continued to paint until her final days. No cause of death was given.
One of her sculptures, “Pumpkin Large,” can be found at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines. Learn more about Kusama’s work and honor her memory by making a trip to admire the pumpkin.
Who is the artist Yayoi Kusama?
Kusama was born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto, a city northwest of Tokyo. She was first drawn to art because she suffered from unbearable, overwhelming fear.
Kusama was candid about her mental health struggles, saying she experienced visions and hallucinations of flashing lights, dots and flowers since childhood.
“What kept me from ending my life was drawing and making art. That has never changed. It was through discovering my love of art that I have been able to survive and continue living to this day,” she said in a 2014 interview with Vogue Japan.
Kusama’s family ran a seed and plant nursery in her native Japan, and the artist grew up surrounded by fields of plants. As a result, pumpkins, usually covered in the artist’s signature fields of polka dots, have appeared in her art since she was a young girl, according to the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.
Kusama became a huge commercial success — a rarity for an artist, particularly a female one. Her international exhibitions attracted huge crowds and her works often sold for more than $1 million. One painting, Untitled (Nets) (1959), sold for $10.5 million in 2022.
Among her most well-known pieces are the Infinity Mirror Room series. One of those, Narcissus Garden, features between 1,000 and 1,500 mirrored spheres that mimic a shifting reflective field.
Kusama won numerous awards including the Order of Culture, Japan, and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France.
About “Pumpkin (L),” Yayoi Kusama’s sculpture in Des Moines
A recurring motif in the artist’s work, the pumpkin represents a “source of radiant energy to Kusama,” according to a Smithsonian description.
Kusama “has written, ‘Pumpkins bring about poetic peace in my mind. Pumpkins talk to me,’” the Smithsonian article reads. “Viewing the pumpkin as both humble and amusing, this whimsical vegetable comes to represent an alternative self-portrait of the artist.”
More: Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin Large” is in John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park
The pumpkin took a circuitous route to its perch in the sculpture park in Des Moines. Conceived by the Japanese artist, the piece was made in London, flown to Chicago and driven to Iowa. It took two years for the Pappajohns, the creators of the sculpture park, to find the work.
Kusama has been a favorite of John Pappajohn, the park’s namesake, since early in his art collecting career. And because of the meaning pumpkins have to the artist, finding one for the sculpture park was imperative, he said.
“Because the pumpkin is Kusama’s favorite image, it took years for us to find this piece, which is so unique, and we are so lucky to get this,” Pappajohn said.
The piece is a “definitive work by one of the most important contemporary artists working today,” Jeff Fleming, director of the Des Moines Art Center, told the Register in 2018.
More: See how “Pumpkin Large” was installed at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park
“Kusama has been working for decades and has been a part of many movements, but she has, since early in her career, established herself as an entirely unique artist. There is no one who does anything like her.”
Des Moines Register reporter Courtney Crowder and Reuters reporters Kaori Kaneko and Mariko Katsumura contributed to this article.
Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at [email protected] or 515-284-8132.
Related: Des Moines Art Center receives grant to preserve works by women artists
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