Kumi Sugai - トランプ マーク[M] (Trump Mark M)

A fabulous piece by Kumi Sugai: トランプ マーク [M] (Trump Mark M). The four card suits - clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades - captured in Sugai’s graphic vocabulary: flat black and red suits embedded with blue and red triangles. A fantastic graphic piece on the traditional deck. ♣♦♥♠

• Year & Edition: 1972 · Edition 34/60 (signed & editioned in pencil “Sugai”). 
  
• Medium: Silkscreen on BFK Rives paper. Printed by Sugai (Paris). Published by Galerie Brusberg (Hannover) and Sugai (Paris).
  
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 60.50 cm × W: 44.00 cm.
  
• Condition: Wonderful condition; colours bright and unfaded, paper clean with no notable marks or blemishes. *Beautifully Framed.
  
• Notes: Trump Mark M from Sugai’s series Jeu De Carte, circa 1972. There appears to be an accompanying Queen & Jack to the suit, and the possible existence of separate designs for each K/Q/J of Diamonds, Hearts, & Spades also. Raisonné No: #190. (Reference: Katsuo Hara (Art Dune) | Sugaï. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre gravé 1955-96 | 1996)

About the Artist

Kumi Sugai (1919-1996) crafted a bold, graphic print language fusing Japanese calligraphy, Western letterforms, and modern geometric abstraction. A former Hankyu Railway designer, in the 1960's, alongside his paintings, he developed his printmaking - hard-edge compositions evoking road culture and traffic codes: arrows, chevrons, numerals, and directional symbols - motifs iconic to his work from the mid-1960's onward. He won the Grand Prix at the 1966 Kraków International Print Biennial and was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1971; his works are held by the National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo & Kyoto), the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, and the Guggenheim. [ ← View All Works by Kumi Sugai]