Violet

A print from 1959 to 1960 titled simply "Violet," one of Kumi Sugai's color-focused works from the period when he was establishing his international reputation in Paris. The single-word title strips the image down to its chromatic essence, asking the viewer to encounter violet not as a description of something else but as a presence in its own right. Sugai's prints from this era balance hard-edged geometric shapes with organic, calligraphic energy, and the violet palette likely saturates the composition with a rich, vibrating warmth that distinguishes it from his more austere black-and-white pieces.