New Delhi, Aug. 27 -- The dotty pumpkins and kaleidoscope rooms of Yayoi Kusama, who has died aged 97, were as vibrant as the artist herself, but her exuberant work was the expression of a long battle with mental illness. Once a fixture of the 1960s pop and minimalist scenes in New York, Japan's "polka dot queen" found huge commercial success in her later decades. Her larger-than-life paintings, sculptures and installations-inspired by vivid hallucinations-sold for millions of dollars and packed out top galleries.

Kusama, instantly recognisable in her bright red wig and bold spotted outfits, worked well into old age from the psychiatric hospital in Tokyo where she lived voluntarily for the second half of her life. But she also struggled ...