This week, I had the honor of experiencing two rare artistic blessings. First, I was able to meet Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama in person, in her new Tokyo museum.

Then, hours later, I was banned from her personal studio. In the art world, 88-year-old Kusama is a living deity, the Queen of the Avant-Garde, the most expensive female artist alive . In her home country, she's popular enough to appear on talk shows and star in commercials , and on Oct. 1, she opened her own museum, dedicated to her own work.

She is also popular worldwide, though people abroad are more likely to recognize her work than Kusama herself. You've likely seen Kusama's trademark polka dots somewhere, whether in a painting or on a Louis Vuitton bag. Her "Infinity Mirror Room," currently showing at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, is so popular (and hard to get tickets for) that it's been compared to "Hamilton." But again, it's the mirrors making most of the headlines, not the artist herself.

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