"L'Hiver"

"L'Hiver" (Winter) is a woodblock print by Kumi Sugai that likely employs the bold geometric abstraction characteristic of his mature Paris-period work. The title's French provenance reflects Sugai's deep integration into the École de Paris milieu, where he worked from 1952 onward. Winter as subject matter in abstract printmaking typically manifests through restrained palettes — cool blues, stark whites, and dense blacks — rather than representational imagery. Sugai's woodblock technique in this period typically involved precise, hard-edged forms with flat areas of color, a marked departure from the gestural calligraphy of his earlier canvases. His training in Japanese print traditions informed his sensitivity to negative space and the textural potential of woodgrain, even within an otherwise Western modernist compositional framework. The work likely demonstrates the tension between East and West that defined Sugai's practice: a Japanese printmaking medium channeled through an abstract vocabulary shaped by his sustained engagement with postwar European art movements.