Festival Y.

Painted in 1971, Festival Y. (Lot 455) is an iconic piece by Japanese artist Kumi Sugai. From 1963, the body of Sugaï's work is then constructed with severe straight lines and curves, characterized by complete objectivity. As a big fan of Porsche, he compressed highway and traffic signs into basic form of his visual system, like in Festival Y., a trafficlight-like motif formed by two squares and one rectangle; the pattern of squares containing circles, trapezoid placed on both sides and joined by a band with horizontal and diagonal stripes recalls traffic signs. Painting considered as a system constitutes part of Sugaï's vision of viewing the painting as a whole than as individual units. The approach of systematic combinations of basic forms, reminiscent of machine production, proposes a new view of painting which shares similarity in the spirit of American minimalism or hard edge. The creative and imaginative power of Sugaï is demonstrated in vast diversity created with basic form and pure colour.

With minimal use of three colours – red, blue and black, the use of colour is strong and bold. The contrasting colours and flat surface, as well as the vertical strip with colour gradation can be referenced to the printing effect and graphic design on ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) in Edo period. The colour shade subtly but effectively enhances pictorial depth and rhythm.