Image: Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum
Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum will present 'Sugai Kumi - 30 Years After His Death' from October 2 to December 6, 2026, a special exhibition dedicated to one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed painters of the 20th century. The museum says the show will trace Sugai Kumi’s career from his early works through to his later production, bringing together a broad view of his artistic development nearly three decades after his death in 1996.
Sugai was born in 1919 and is described by the museum as one of the most highly regarded Japanese painters of his generation. The exhibition is framed as a chance to follow the changes in his practice over time, with works selected from different periods of his career. According to the museum, the presentation is intended to offer the first opportunity to view this range of Sugai’s work as a sequence, rather than as isolated examples.
Among the highlighted material is a work that had been stored apart from its frame and is identified by the museum as a rare ‘Japanese debut’ piece. The exhibition will also include Sugai’s 1973 Porsche Carrera RS, part of the artist’s personal world and presented alongside his paintings. The museum says the combination is meant to approach the expression Sugai pursued with intensity throughout his life.
The exhibition page lists several works from across Sugai’s career, including 'Prepared', 'Dog, Fish and Bird', 'The Morning Autouroute', 'Rouge-de-Cadmium-11', 'Festival de Tokyo' and '12 Cylinders'. The works come from collections including Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. All of the listed pieces are by Sugai.
The exhibition will be shown in the museum’s third-floor special exhibition space. It opens on October 2, with the museum noting that the day’s opening begins at 10 a.m., and it runs without interruption until December 6. Regular opening hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Friday hours extended to 7 p.m. Admission closes 30 minutes before the museum shuts.
Ticket sales begin with advance tickets on August 8, 2026, and the museum lists same-day admission at 1,500 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for high school and university students, and 700 yen for elementary and junior high school students. The exhibition ticket also covers the museum’s collection galleries during the run of the show. The museum has additionally announced related talks, gallery talks, an Instagram live series and a workshop, along with a one-yen discount admission to Shukkeien Garden using the exhibition ticket stub and reciprocal discounts with Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and Hiroshima Museum of Art during the exhibition period.
