Iris No 101 — 花菖蒲 No 101

Crossing the century mark, the one hundred and first iris in Sugiura Kazutoshi's series represents an artistic commitment of unusual duration and intensity. Few postwar Japanese printmakers sustained such a focused single-subject project, and the triple-digit entries show an artist who had moved well beyond technical problem-solving into something more like philosophical inquiry through image-making. The hana-shōbu (花菖蒲) at No. 101 has shed any residual botanical literalism in favor of a presence that is simultaneously recognizable as an iris and fully abstracted into color and form.