Sandven Art
Fine art sales and advisory — Oslo & Zürich
Kumi Sugai (1919–1996)
Japanese
Kumi Sugai was a Japanese painter and printmaker who moved to Paris in 1952. His work developed from signs and forms suggestive of calligraphy towards a more geometric language of clear shapes and strong colour. Printmaking became an important space for repetition and variation. Circles, lines and recurring emblems connect his images with an interest in movement and the visual rhythms of modern life.
Biography
Born in Kobe in 1919, Kumi Sugai studied art in Osaka and worked in commercial design before moving to France. Establishing himself in Paris, he began making prints in 1955 and gained recognition in international exhibitions.
His early Paris work often used bold shapes with references to Japanese visual culture and calligraphic marks. During the 1960s, he increasingly turned to geometric structures and bright colour. From the 1970s, restricted groups of forms could generate many different compositions through changes of placement, combination and scale.
This interest in repeated motifs continued into his later S series. Sugai's career shows how a limited vocabulary can remain open to development, with prints providing a sustained field of enquiry alongside paintings in oil and acrylic.
Available works
Collecting & enquiries
Sugai's prints invite close comparison of shape, interval and colour. Their clarity can appeal to collectors interested in geometric abstraction, while variations reveal a more exploratory practice. Contact Sandven Art for details of the print shown here, including its edition and condition.
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