Yayoi Kusama // Dying People, 2017

  • Yayoi Kusama, Dying People, 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 194.3 × 194.3 cm. A large late work confronting mortality through Kusama’s signature language of repetition and vivid colour.
    Dying People, 2015

    Acrylic on canvas, 194.3 × 194.3 cm (74½ × 74½ in.)
    © Yayoi Kusama. Image reproduced for educational and informational purposes only.

    Painted in 2015, Dying People belongs to Kusama’s late career and reflects the heightened emotional and existential concerns that came to define much of her work in the 2010s. The monumental scale allows the composition to command attention, while the title itself underscores Kusama’s willingness to confront mortality directly.
     
    The canvas combines vivid colours and biomorphic shapes with a sense of repetition and rhythm that connects it to her lifelong themes of obsession and infinity. Yet here, the imagery acquires a more explicitly human and existential dimension, suggesting vulnerability, fragility, and the shared condition of life’s impermanence.

  • “My artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental illness.”

     – Yayoi Kusama

    By this stage, Kusama was a global cultural icon, her exhibitions breaking attendance records and her art widely recognised beyond the traditional art world. Works such as Dying People illustrate how, even at the height of her fame, Kusama remained rooted in deeply personal expression, uniting universal themes of life and death with her distinctive visual language.