Artist Yayoi Kusama dies

Yayoi Kusama has died at the age of 97.

On Wednesday, a representative for the Japanese avant-garde artist's studio announced that she had passed away at a hospital in Tokyo, Japan on 14 August.

"Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry," they wrote. "She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul."

No other details were disclosed.

"We will carry forward Kusama's wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world," the spokesperson added.

Born in Matsumoto in 1929, Kusama began making artworks, including drawings of pumpkins, which were inspired by hallucinations she experienced when she was just a child.

After studying painting, the artist travelled to the United States in 1957 and soon began corresponding with Georgia O'Keeffe, who influenced her decision to go to New York City.

Over the course of her career, Kusama built up a reputation for covering objects and surfaces in polka dots or "infinity nets" and purpose-built mirror installations known as Mirror/Infinity rooms.

The sculptor returned to Japan in 1973, and after suffering a depressive episode in 1977, took up permanent residence in a psychiatric hospital setting in Tokyo. She also set up a studio near the hospital, where she made art almost every day.

Kusama completed several outdoor sculptural commissions, including 2002's The Visionary Flowers for the Matsumoto City Museum of Art and 2007's The Hymn of Life: Tulips (2007) for the Beverly Gardens Park in Los Angeles.