This work created in the 1980s, depicts the view directly ahead from a rapidly moving automobile. Across a two-part canvas, sharply defined radiating lines converging toward a focal point are contrasted with a blurred, tunnel-like vortex, conveying the visual experience transformed by speed.
In the late 1980s, Sugai developed the S series, in which the winding S-shaped route that had already appeared in La Vacance de I’Eté (1965) became an independent motif. Repeating the same form in a variety of colors and compositions, he transformed it into an increasingly symbolic and universal image. In many of these works, interconnected S-shapes extend to the edges of the canvas, creating a sense of continuity beyond the picture plane. For Sugai, whose work aspired to the public function of signs and symbols, the repetition of a single form held particular significance. The “S” referred not only to a winding roadway but also to the initial of his own surname, Sugai. These works can be understood as an ongoing exploration of how speed, the fleeting landscapes revealed in motion, and the experience of travel might be rendered as signs within society. In this sense, Sugai sought to make painting itself a social presence, functioning as a form of visual communication within the modern world.