18 Facts About Kumi Sugai

Kumi Sugai was a Japanese painter and printmaker.

Kumi Sugai began his career in advertising for the Osaka-Kobe based railway company Hankyu, where he worked from 1937 to 1945.

Kumi Sugai embarked on his fine arts practice after the war ended, in 1947.

Kumi Sugai began frequenting the studio of Yoshihara Jiro, a local businessman and artist that would later lead the influential Gutai group.

Yoshihara's recognition for Kumi Sugai's practice is evidenced by his work being awarded a prize at the 4th Ashiya City Exhibition, an open-call competition at which Yoshihara served as a judge.

Kumi Sugai arrived there by himself in 1952 and resided in the Montparnasse neighborhood.

Jean-Clarence Lambert, an art critic, poet and friend of the artist, recounts that Kumi Sugai's early life in Paris was a solitary one.

Kumi Sugai's work was admired by art dealer John Craven, who offered Sugai a contract with his gallery and his first solo exhibition in Paris.

Kumi Sugai's work attracted the attention of influential critic and writer Michel Ragon, who included his work in two exhibitions, confirming Kumi Sugai's place in the loosely-affiliated Nouvelle Ecole de Paris.

Kumi Sugai began experimenting with printmaking in 1955, three years after his arrival in Paris.

Kumi Sugai created a number of sculptural works in the late 1950s, including Objet, a paintbrush mounted on a small plinth, englobed in paint and taking on an abstract aspect.

Kumi Sugai stated that 1962 was a transformative year in his career:.

Kumi Sugai abandoned informel-style materiality for matte, crisp surfaces, which ultimately led to his adoption of acrylic paint.

Between 1964 and 1968, Kumi Sugai produced about fifty works, each of which containing the word "Auto" in their titles, including Autoroute de l'apres-midi, Autoroute du matin, Festival Autoroute, Autoroute au soleil.

In 1969, Kumi Sugai returned to Japan after 18 years of absence, having been commissioned to create a 16-meter long, 3.6 meter high mural in the entryway of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Kumi Sugai regularly returned to Japan where a large number of retrospectives of his work were held.

Kumi Sugai was regularly featured in international exhibitions from the 1960s onwards and received numerous prizes.

In 1996, Kumi Sugai returned to Japan to receive the Shiju-Hosho prize, awarded by the Emperor of Japan to individuals with high cultural merit.