Kumi Sugai

KUMI SUGAI (Japan, 1919 - 1996).
Untitled.
Embossed engraving, E.A. copy.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 76 x 56 cm.

Kumi Sugai was a Japanese painter and printmaker. He was educated at the Osaka University of Art in the 1930s. He attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in the 1950s. Sugai began his career in advertising for the Japanese railway company Hankyu, where he worked from 1937 to 1945. He became a professional painter in Paris in 1952, and first exhibited his work at the Salon d'Automne in 1953, followed by the Galerie. Craven in Paris in 1954. He began exhibiting internationally that year, first at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, followed by St. George's Gallery in London in 1955. He later exhibited his work at the Venice Biennale in Italy, the documenta in Germany, the Carnegie International, Expo 67 in Canada, the São Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil, the Ohara Museum of Art in Japan, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Sugai illustrated two collections of poetry by Jean-Clarence Lambert. His work was added to the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He designed a mural for the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.