Yayoi Kusama
Sculptor
Japanese writer and multimedia artist whose works included paintings, collages, sculptures, performance art, and environmental installations. She was known for her profound interest in psychedelic colors.
She studied Nihonga painting at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, a style with which she quickly became bored.
She was admired and respected by many of her contemporaries, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.
She was born into a prosperous and conservative Japanese family. She experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts during her childhood and struggled with suicidal urges.
She and Grace Hartigan both displayed their artwork in the Museum of Modern Art.