This exhibition provided a comprehensive survey of 81 works by Kumi Sugai, spanning the period from his move to France to 1983. By the time of the exhibition, Sugai had already gained significant recognition not only in France but also throughout Europe and the United States.
A passionate enthusiast of speed who famously drove Porsches, Sugai developed a distinctive visual language inspired by the functional clarity of the autoroute (motorway) and the dynamism of sports cars. Through these motifs, he explored the possibility of painting as an autonomous form of social and universal signage.
Sugai had previously participated in A View of Japanese Contemporary Art (1975), the inaugural exhibition of the Seibu Museum of Art. The Sezon Museum of Modern Art also holds six of his works in its collection. In conjunction with this exhibition, a performance was presented with the poet Makoto Ooka, who also contributed an essay to the exhibition catalogue.